LIBRARY OF CONGR ESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 






HumaniBrDtherhDDL 






■AND- 



ft PSflLM U? FftlTH. 

TWO POEMS. 
__/_ 

By Thomas KikiaD- 




THE CHURCH AT WORK PUB. CO., 

■6}^ East Washington Street, (Blackford Block,) 

INDIANAPOLIS, INT). 






COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY 

THOMAS NIELD, 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



RDEM 



Whoe'er thou art whose eye may scan our page, 
Prepare thyself to wrestle with the truth ; 
And if she throw thee, own the mastery 
And thenceforth love her ardently, and serve. 

Be thou a self-appointed censor, if 
Thou wilt. Apply thy square and compass to 
Our work; yet know its aim and purpose, and 
Its architectural order, at the start. 

We stand upon a promontory and 
Behold the billows of a world, and fain 
Would rear a lighthouse, that the nations may 
Avoid the reefs where countless corpses lie. 

We copy not the pyramids, nor Greek 
Nor Gothic forms, but, building for the years 
To be, with the materials at our hand, 
Create an order of utilitv. 



Our purpose on the front is clearly seen, 
As night's queen-star upon her azure throne, 
With enigmatic prophecies in rear; 
The whole an ideal for the coming time. 

Whate'er it be it is our own. For e'en 
One's selfishnegs asks honesty ; since to 
Attempt a literary theft, with a 
Detective shadowing ever}^ line, were vain. 

Then take it as it is for what it is. 

If 'tis adapted to its purpose, well ; 

For 'tis perfection in the workman's style 

To make his product serve the purpose sought. 

In parting, listen to our closing psalm, 
As to the echo of our former strokes 
Upon the granite. May they leave within 
Thy soul the impulse to a kindred faith. 



THE PUMAN BRDTHERHDDD, 



CHAPTER I, 

Scene — On the St^^eet. 

Norton. Good day, Gillespie ! for the day is good 
That brings such tidings as this day has brought, 
Though, like a welcome rain, it comes with clouds 

Gillespie. 'Tis good to meet you in so good a 
mood. 
And pray what stirs your blood at such a rate ? 

N. An uncle on the other side the brine 
Has bowed his head in answer to the beck 
That all must heed, and left a competence 
To me, his only heir. Is that not good ? 

G. Congratulations multiplied. Yet Time 
Had more accommodated us had he 
But swept his scythe a stroke ahead or back. 

N. Yet blame no blessing after it arrives. 
A tardy spring is greener when it comes. 

G. It is a circumstantial paradox; 
A lucky thing at an unlucky time — 
Lucky for you, unlucky for the cause ; 
For I infer that you will have to leave. 
Will you have time to help us organize ? 

N. The cause is not named Norton. It will live 



When we are with Methuselah. But come, 
Let's talk things over at the Balfour House. 

( They enter,) 
I hope to leave within a week ; but you 
Remain; and so there is a steersman at 
The helm. This stroke of fortune gives us oil 
With which to lubricate our new machine 
And put us in good humor with ourselves. 

G. That at your pleasure. 

N. So I please. Meanwhile, 

The program may be this : You organize, 
As proxy for myself — the head and soul 
Of all — and you will find the body move 
Smoothly responsive to your grip of will. 
First, trumpet forth our j)rinciples with such 
A blast that men will think there must be force 
At back of so much noise; for most men judge 
Of movements as they do of bells — by sound. 
The silent motions of the worlds are less 
Observed than empty wagons on the street. 
Next organize; make wise provision for 
Supplies, remembering that the rills make seas. 
I might myself bear all the burden when 
Returned ; but that which costs men nothing is 
Esteemed at what it costs. Watch carefully 
The oflSces. Get men whose souls are rock, 
Through which our principles have worn their canons > 
Not flabby men, who flap like flags the way 
The wind blows, but your true men — such as have 
The most uncommon share of common sense, 



Who, though their flesh were ground to sausage-meat, 
Would still be firm in soul. There are such men ; 
And such a cause as ours deserves to have 
Them, as it needs. And next, be diligent 
In cultivating harmony, which is 
The Base of unity, which is the pledge 
Of ultimate success and permanence. 

G. I feel already that our loss is half 
Retrieved in what you leave us of your mind 
To guide us in your absence. I shall do 
The best I can ; which is but saying I 
Shall act the man. 

N. That is an angel's stent, 

Your ideal's highest peak. I hope it may 
Be Himalayan in its hight. I have but this 
To add : Our cause demands your warmest faith, 
Which is the strongest tonic zeal can take. 
That cause rests on the right as on the rock, 
And every principle we advocate 
Is in a tower of truth impregnable. 
From which our flag shall fling out fluttering hope 
To all mankind. While I am absent let 
That flag not lower an inch in token of 
Obsequiousness to wealth. My stay shall but 
Inure to the advantage of the cause 
We represent. 

G. How long do you intend 

To stay ? 

N. Until I settle up aff^airs, 
As well as learn the visual incidence 



8 

Of some who are the country's eyes. This done, 
I shall return ; and then look out for weights 
Upon the throttle-valves, and whirling governors. 

(Scene. — Boylston Hall^ England.) 

Mr. Bronson. — It gives me satisfaction thus to 
serve 
Your uncle, who has been my friend ; for in 
The settlement of his estate I shew ^ 

Posthumous gratitude. Moreover, I 
Am gratified to find his nephew such 
A man of mind and character, who looks 
With philosophic eye upon the broad 
Horizon of aff'airs, and by the state 
Of his deportment proves the worthy heir 
Of one so worthy as my friend deceased. 
Command my services to any length 
That friendship's arm can reach. 

Norton. Your kindness is 

Appreciated to the final dot 
Of gratitude. Allow this levy then 
Upon your kindness ; to procure for me 
An introduction to some men of note — 
Not the great dragon-flies that flit across 
The surface of society, but those who feel 
The motions of progressive thought, who are 
The priests that give its oracles in word 
And deed. 

B. Circuitously I can serve 
You there. Acquainted with the member of 



9 . 

Our borough, I can find you free access 

To him, through whom your utmost wish may be 

Obtained. 

N. The very thing I want, and which 
Will earn you double thanks. 

g No, not at all. 

I only thank your uncle in the deed 

And shew appreciation of yourself; 

In doing which I pay myself a honor. 
N. I feel that I am doubly rich in thus 

Inheriting your friendship with the rest. 
Scene— //I a Parliamentary Committee Room. 

Hon. Walter Faxton. Mr. Farley? Yes, acquainted 
from 

A boy. My autograph will readily 

Unlock this door— and lips. His grain, as you 

Will find, is close and tough — not deal but oak. 

An age that has the boast of such a man 

Need not complain of poverty. But should 

You find him in a gruff and grouty mood, 

Distracted by dyspeptic tortures, deem 

It not a personal affront ; for now 

His body is the tyrant of his mind. 

The Irish member, Mr. Marvel — I 

Can introduce you to him in an hour 

Or so. A bill comes up this afternoon 

In which he takes an interest; and 

He will be there as sure as he will breathe. 

Marvel is a conglomeration of 



10 



Intensity, with one idea as 
A pivot where his being all revolves 
One from America needs little help 
io reach his ear and heart. 

rp„ ■ , Suppose vou that 

lo-morrow he will have more leisure « 

Y 

To-morrow afternoon. ^^' 

rp/ ' ^ ' Then I will see 

ThJ^^^J^^"' *°-'»o"-'>w, Mr. Marvel- 
V ^ ™ ^^ y^""" convenience. 

f- iwill fit as nicely as the "i" in did. (Exit.) 

Scene— In Mr. Farley's Study. 
Farlej._So you belong to the United States, 
Ihat void, or chaos of this hapless age. 
Where what is horridest of saurian things- 
With names and attributes congenialer 
To monsters than to human things-crawls prone, 
in the abominablest moral slime, 
Or flaps its leathery wings in labored flight 
All things are in their inchoatest state— 
.Are tentativer than a baby's first 
Essay to suck its toe-are jumbled in 
Unjointedness_a heap of cobble-stones- 
Self-magnified; greed, glorified ; what is 
Hideousest in character, in deed the 
Damnablest, apotheosized, that a 
Drivelling mediocrity may be 
A crownless king. Humanity-the cant 
Ol cant ! Democracy— the stenchfullest 
Ol all conceits! the cataract upon 



11 

The centurj^'s eye 1 What is humanity 
Dehnmanized ? or what democracy 
Where Judas is the equal of his Lord? 
What but stark treason to the race and age ? 

Norton. — No worse than here, where Judas — he 
who holds 
The bag— ^s Lord. 

F. An attic flavor there — 
The creditablest repartee of many 
A day. Your country has the attribute 
Of bigness ; it is bulk. Its history is 
The history of an o'erblown bubble, that 
May burst with any breeze. Its bulk is but 
Unwieldiness. Withal, it lacks the pledge 
Of permanence, in incohesiveness. 
The portents of its judgment day are in 
The sky. 

N. It has the common base of an 
Original humanity. The rest 
Are accidents of circumstance. Perhaps 
We have the sweepings of your monarchies. 
But we may utilize the litter you 
Have made by your mal government, and from 
The quarry of experiment bring forth 
A fitting finial for the golden age. 

F. A dream — a chimera — a dragon's tooth 
To tear you while you sleep. This hodge-podge will 
But be so many diverse elements, 
In diabolicalest effervescence, till 
It settles flat, insipid — not a tang. 



12 

A scent, superior to its neutral staleness. 

N. Whence came your noble blood, your royal 
stock, 
But from a kindred source, in darker days ? 
May ours not yet become a broader-based 
Nobility, a vaster royalty ? 
F. Yes, could you take the individuals of 
The stock and isolate them from the rest — 
Give them the sense of power, of worth, with all 
Advantages of circumstance — from age 
To age keep educating them w^ith best, 
Perfectest ideals in their eye; then. take 
Some one and make him isolateder 
Than they, in the exclusiveness of a 
Superlative condition, and keep up 
The process, taking one, and one, and one. 
Until the whole were idealized — then, sir. 
It might. But not this muddle can avail — 
Not this Cimmerian, fog-dense, ink-black 
Illiteracy; this premiuming of greed; 
This throwing wealth among the crowd for them 
To trample under foot in scrambling for ; 
This leveling that levels to the dirt. 

F. The Conqueror placed the pets of caprice on 
The lesser thrones, and by his fiat made 
Them noblemen. What need have all of us 
But some more autocratic word to make 
Us noblemen ? some bloodier touch to cleanse 
Our plebian taint and give us royalty ? 
But with experience for our oracle 



13 

We are content. Your faded fag-ends of 

Nobility are held together by 

Exotic threads, spun by the royal word 

From common stuiF. And royalty itself 

Has often found itself in sorry straits. 

Still, in the scale of sociology, 

You strike the dominant by accident, 

And I would resonate your note. If mere 

Environment has made nobility 

Of some, and royalty, it can of more ; 

And if of more, of all. Then were it wise 

To furnisli this environment to all 

And so far forth ennoble all. Nor need 

We balk before the task. The ages are 

Our working hours. Your legislation has 

Been downward for the multitude. The day 

Of despots made the people slaves, and you 

Assume their normal status is in chains ; 

And hence your legislation is for slaves. 

We aim to legislate for all as men — 

"ft) get our jack-screws under them, in faith 

That every hour will give an upraise to 

The whole. May we not hope for opposite 

Eesults to those obtained by you ? 

Y. Hope ? Ha, 

Ha, ha ! Yes, all infinity for hope 
To flutter in and flap itself to death- 
Room enough to rear aerial castles 
That would house a million words. Hope! The 
young 



14 

Will hope. It is their manna as they pass 
Through wildernesses toward a land they do 
Not live to see. Yes, hope is angels' food, 
But unsubstantial stuff for flesh and blood. 
They hope for the impossible ; and when 
At last they come dead up against 'the facts 
They are the astoundedest of all mankind. 
Experience plays ichneumon with our hopes. 

N. And yet his vision on a watch-tower may 
Be trusted more than his at bottom of 
A well ; and he whose aim is at the stars 
Will clear the boulder at his feet. 

F. Be sure 

Your country sees with sober eyes or she 
May view things with inverted sight. Enough. 
Enjoy your dream and make the most of it; 
But keep a lock on your Pandora box. 

N We will, since you have let the evils out. 

Scene — A Parliamentary Committee Room. 

Hon. Mr. Makvel. Your country is the wond*' 

of the world, 
And well deserves that every honest man 
Should breathe a blessing on its name. Ireland 
Is debtor to its heart and purse ; and 'tis 
Her children's cynosure. We envy you 
Your liberty and wait in weariness 
The day when we shall share the boon as you. 
Norton. And you may wait and weary still before 

it comes. 



M. I fear, yet hope ; to come it must. 
The mills of justice must grind out our rights ; 
For e'en poor. Ireland cannot always bleed. 

N. Give us as many people to the mile 
As you, with self same types of social' and 
Domestic life, their duplicates in modes 
Of toil, of thought, and all that constitutes 
The texture of the man, — how much, suppose 
You, would our country have to boast ? 
Suppose your country transferred bodily 
Across the brine and soldered on to ours ; 
Incorporate it as a separate State ; 
Make every other State its duplicate ; 
Then give you all the liberty you dared 
To ask, — how much would that improve your lot ? 

M. Such questions — well they put the matter in 
A speculative light. We can but guess ; 
And guessing in a case like this is blind 
As catching midges by the moon ; you miss 
A thousand for the one you catch. Now take 
Things as they are. Confront the ghastly facts. 
That grin like skeletons while strangling us; 
Then say if liberty, with all that it 
Implies, were not a boon, as 'tis our right. 

N. Pray, what were liberty to those Avho lack 
Self-help, ambition, loyalty, and the 
Broad-breasted charity that holds the heart 
Of liberty, giving the boon itself 
Enjoys? What were ou7' liberty were most 
The people alien from the government 



16 

In heart ? haters of law, because it made 
The laws ; chronic disturbers of the peace ; 
The greater, more illiterate, half against 
The rest, with thirsty daggers ready, at 
A wink, to slake their thirst in civil fead ; — 
In short, two-thirds the country living in 
The seventeenth century? 

M. Your colors are 

Too dark — by far too dark. I must reject 
The picture as o'erdrawn. 

N. Too bold, perhaps, 

Because the truth 'is nude. ^Yell, veil it o'er. 
And still the contour of the argument 
Is there. Our people, though diverse, have still 
A unity ; though free, are loyal to 
The government ; and though tenacious of 
Their creeds, are tolerant. Make yours as ours. 
By educating them for liberty. 
And that by training to the proper use 
Of what they have, or 'twere a razor in 
An infant's hands. 

M. I think her now prepared — 
At least, for larger liberty ; that nought 
Besides so well can mollify her sores. 
Self-government will give us confidence. 
Respect our manhood and you make us men. 
But we have been belittled, hectored, kicked, 
And spit upon, as decent people would 
Not treat a dog. And need you wonder if 
We slouch the tail, or snarl, or even bite 



17 

A little now and then ? By so much is 
The soul of manhood in us still. Let us 
Do less, we should deserve to be despised. 
But what of it — prepared or unprepared? 
Because a neighbor has a larger fist, 
Must we submit to have her box our ears 
And judge for us our fitness to be free ? 
No, we demand of her the common rights 
Of common law that nations recognize. 
Our right, sir — our inalienable rights — 
Is that on which we plant our foot : and we 
Resent the motherishness of tyranny. 

N. You give the truth. in profile. Be the wrongs 
Of Ireland what you think, she does by far 
Too little ; be they less, too much. Even 
Resentment has its dignity. Much more 
Does justice scorn the currish modes of spite 
And claim her rights with noble front. At worst. 
You echo but the wide world's dreary wail. 
No other people but have suffered wrongs. 
But never curses and assassin stabs 
Redressed a nation's wrongs and burst her bands. 
For every Boyne there's been a Flodden Field ; 
For every Drogheda a Cullodin. 
But still the thistle blooms on Scotia's brow. 
While Erin's harp hangs hushed in dusky halls. 
Instead of highland thrift and happy clans, 
Her glens and mountain slopes are heathered o'er — 
A man-made wilderness — that deer may roam 
Amid the ruins of a thousand homes. 



IS 

To fusnish gouty epicures with sport. 
And yet the nation neither sprinkles blood 
Upon the skirts of the injustice nor 
Sits still to grind a curse between her teeth. 
E'en Albion is not free from Norman thrall. 
Yet while she winces 'neath the yoke that chafes 
Her galls, she knows that force is no emollient. 
Which, think you, has the surest remedy ? 

M. Each nation has its own specific wrongs. 

N. Admit refractive circumstances that 
Occasion varied incidence. One sun 
Of opportunity has shone on both ; 
And Erin's song might be as sweet in tone 
As Scotia's bloom is fair. Of this herself 
Gives proof. One climate, soil and government 
Pertain to all. Hence all are favored or 
Oppressed. What upas then affects the south 
And west? What cornucoiDia pours in thrift 
Upon the north and east ? Answer thus much, 
The shell of your enigma will be cracked. 
It must be other than the climate, soil. 
Or laws. Teach them that freemen are the free 
In soul ; that ignorance is slavery ; 
That no bad laws can equal anarchy, 
And that the heaviest tax is indolence. 
Teach them that Justice hears as well as feels ; 
That Eeason has a mightier arm than Force ; 
And that the curse they breathe returns to them. 
And teach them too that broadest brotherhood 
Gives greatest strength ; and that the time consumed 



19 

Upon the rent flea might be better spent 
Upon the rabid whiskey-dog that runs at large, 
And while it bites the people breeds the fleas. 
(Excuse the homeliness that brings truth home.) 
These lessons learned, the land will have new life. 

M. 1 fear your heart is not with the oppressed, 
And think you echo not your country's voice. 

N. I fear your worst oppressions have a smack 
Of suicide. Who wastes a pennyworth 
Of opportunity may seek in vain 
For pounds. I fear the zeal that aims to cramp 
Your sphere. The world's ascetic age is past, 
And nations cannot live in hermitage ; 
Hence they are widening out their reach. 
In faith that greater interests must include 
The less. You yearn to narrow yours, and so 
Out-blunder England, who forgets how much 
Your weal is hers. Her welfare is in you. 
Your life in her. You liave a hand upon 
The helm of interests belting all the globe. 
Promote the whole you best promote your own. 
The time is come to lift up man as man. 
There is a rank oppression, with a reach 
Extensive as the race, whose roots, are in 
Our brutishness ; and I'rom this banyan all 
Oppressions branch. Though many-trunked it be^ 
The sap in all i% force. The fabric of 
Society is but a dovetailed scheme 
Of wrong, that gives cupidity a place 
Of refuge while it preys upon mankind. 



20 

Our highest ideal has been equal rights, 

Implying right of power to do what is 

Not right ; an equal chance to trample down 

The weak and stamp on them when down. 

Our modes of government provide facilities 

Whereby the whipster overfed may use 

His wealth to snatch the starveling's morsel from 

His mouth. We need a new political 

Economy, and one whose postulate 

includes a true interpretation of 

The motto that has thrilled the world ; and here 

It is : Equality of right in right. 

Your spawn of legislative heresy 

Is in your House of Lords, that fungi of 

The obsolete. The ultimate of power 

Is in their hands who, as so many gods. 

Dictate the destiny of millions ; whom 

You have the power to serve but not control. 

This hydra monarchy — this feudal ghost, 

Makes children of the multitude ; 

And those who curse it from afar grow pale 

To see it sheeted in prerogative. 

Oft as it hears the midnight stroke of doom, 

When an indignant country glowers revenge. 

It grants a crumb and then evanishes. 

But out it comes again and stalks abroad. 

You need to lay it in the feudal grave 

And let the ivy years consume its dust. 

'Tis vain to hope for those to right your wrongs 

Who ieel the pulse-beat only of the "past, 



21 

Who deem your poverty j^oiir normal state 
And hang like leeches on your arteries. 

M. • A ghost it is, at which but few would fire 
A gun ; that fifty curse where one would strike. 
Because the country worships this fetich, 
Aught less than an iconoclastic zeal. 
Born of some desperate hour, would fail to rid 
Us of the incubus. 

N. These desperate hours 

Breed blind men's remedies. You need not smack 
The earthquake-lips of revolution o'er 
Its corpse to break its power ; than which you need 
No more. Cast out the evil spirit and 
Ketain the bod}^ for a better soul. 
To represent the country's second thought. 
But let it represent, not monarchize. 

M. Your plan. 

N. First fix the number in the house. 
As these decease elect successors in 
And from the lower house for life. This would 
Be democratic and conservative, 
Both just and safe. 

M. Though plausible, 

Your scheme projects our remedy too far. 
We want a present help for present needs. 
The starving cannot wait for next year's corn. 

N. The quickest helj) is in a quickened pulse 
And courage, such as on the wavering field 
Sets heroes' eyes ablaze and snatches from 
The hand of Death the blooming amaranth. 



22 

Who waits for Fortune never sees her face. 

M. We are impatient, sir, to grasp her hand. 
We chafe for justice while we vainly wait, 
As chafes the long- stalled charger under curb. 
Yes sir ; we want our rights, and want them now ; 
And we intend to get them as we live — 
And get them by the shortest cut. 

N. Excuse 

Me if I seem to sermonize. And yet 
Allow me to suggest, that it were well 
Should prudence give you eyes. Have patience born 
Of faith. Aim only at the possible, 
Kemembering that you have your hand upon 
The crank of destiny ; nor fear to strain 
Your muscle on the crank. Think not to catch 
A remedy, like butterflies, upon 
The wing. Nations, like pyramids, must grow 
With toil. You have the granite in your blood. 
Develop that and you will grow apace 
Until the country will amaze herself. 

M. There is a scent of reason in your words ; 
And yet I fear the substance is not there. 

N. Smell round a little and you'll find it near. 



23 



CHAPTER IL 



Scene. — A Fullic Hall. 



Gillespie. We meet to-night with grandest aims 
in view — 
To organize The Human Brotherhood; 
Our object, to define and vindicate 
The rights of man as man, and then devise 
And use the means that shall secure those rights. 
We need not gush in founts of eloquence, 
Nor weave a web of subtle argument 
From threads of sophistry, to prove a lack 
Of balance in the opportunities 
To share what nature has prepared for all. 
On every hand Ave have our millionaires. 
Not one of whom has given the tithe of an 
Equivalent for Avhat he holds ; while most 
Hold not the tithe of an equivalent 
For service given. One has, but has not earned ; 
The other earned, but does not have. In such 
A case, that eats the bread of this. The cause 
Of inequality is radical. 



24 

The pendulum of a political 

Economy that swings with such a sweep 

As this, is out of line with equity. 

To find that line, and then to make our beat 

Equisonant, is that at which we aim. 

And we invite the aid of all true men 

In this the grandest effort of the age. 

An honored friend, whom I had hoped to have 

As president, is now in Europe, in 

The interest of the cause ; which throws on me 

The burden of responsibility 

For what we do ; and this I willingly 

Accept. Before we organize I shall 

Be glad to hear what others have to say ; 

For here at least there is equality. 

Ed. Pratt. It seems a mystery that we have not 
had 
A move like this before. But here it is, • 
In proof that Justice has the breath of life. 
What has been said is true, and mildly put. 
Had those who, singly, waste enough to feed 
A hundred eaten only what they earned, 
They long ago had starved to death. They eat 
And earn not ; hence they eat what others earn. 
And so are paupers. More ; they waste and earn 
Not ; hence they waste what others ought to eat, 
And so are vermin to society. 
Behold their pomp upon the city's fringe ! 
With what an ostentation they display 
The fruits of plunder, gained by tricks that have 



25 

The benizon of common sentiment 

And all the guaranties and guards of laAV I 

Plunder I say; for plunderers they are, 

Taking the product of their fellows' toil. 

With hon'est sweat we dig the treasure of 

The earth; when they creep up behind and filch 

It from us with a sly audacity. 

What odds the law that gives its amen to 

The deed? Can wrong be right because it wears 

A legal livery ? Tear from the deed 

This vizor of legality, and turn 

Them out upon the open seas, then let 

Them there do what they do on land, behind 

This thin disguise, and any nation would 

Be proud to make them dangle from the yard-arm. 

They would be pirates then. What are they now ? 

But here they face the day and sun themselves 

Like peacocks, that mankind may stand agape 

Before the glitter of their plumes. The law I 

What an untrusty whirlagig it is ! 

Have not the laws been made by those who with 

Their mother's milk sucked in the dictum, that 

The right is as the sanction of the law ; 

Who then turned round and sanctioned wrong ? AVe 

make 
The men who make the laws. But we ourselves 
Have been the slaves of custom. We must break 
Our fetters and elect true men — such as 
Will grind to dust, and scatter to the winds, 
The social heresy, that they who have 



26 



The genius to impose upon their kind, 

And by commercial sleight-of-hand 

Extract the juices from their toil, should have 

The privilege and be protected in 

The deed; the heresy that idle craft 

Has higher claims than plodding industry. 

And that accumulated wealth, which is 

So far an autocratic power, has a 

Prerogative, in right, to use its powers 

Still to deplete the common stock, drawing 

A compound interest from society 

On what it gained by the chicanery 

Of trade. Here is the hellish essence of 

This heresy : That right to hold is as 

The skill to get; to use, as power possessed, 

Within the limitations of the law. 

To limit is to say the rule has bounds ; 

And hence the law itself concedes that power 

Has not the right to wrong. The difference then 

Betwixt ourselves and law is ihi^^the hounds 

Of right. An Alexander has no right. 

By virtue of the majesty of might. 

To get what is not his ; nor Greedyfist, 

By might of intellectual artifice. 

Nor aught is theirs against the earner's will 

For which they give no true equivalent. 

And not a millionaire amongst us gives, 

Or ever gave, the country this. Of course, 

Men tell us glibly of the mind to grasp 

The opportunities; the lightning eye, 



27 

So quick to see the chance to strike ; the skill 

To play the devil-fish and hide themselves 

In ink, and take advantage by the smart 

Exploit to do their fellows detriment. 

This only tells how great the tiger is. 

They have no greater than a burglar's mind, 

A counterfeiter's skill ; those cousins on 

The other side the line of law. Not one 

Has paid the price of what he holds. Take him 

To Africa and what would he possess ? 

Perchance the tawdries of a medicine-man. 

Then whence the plethora of wealth he claims ? 

It is the product of the manifold 

Facilities that myriad other minds 

Supply; which are the nation's common stock. 

But these accretions of the ages he 

Appropriates to himself, as one might claim 

An instrument on proving skill to bring 

Out Yankee Doodle. I inquire not here 

About his skiU — the burglar's forte ; — but does 

He have the right to thrust his hand into 

The country's till, abstract its wealth and hold 

It as his own? I answer, No. He owns 

No more than a certificate of so 

Much toil. The rest is legal pelf. We liold 

This continent in trust, with all its stores. 

For our posterity. A billion mouths 

Will soon be opened to be filled. But we 

Are trying, with a blind insanity 

Of greed, to gorge the whole ; and hence we see 



28 

This scrambling with distended claws — this craze 

Of prodigalit}', before whose touch 

Primeval forests fall, the hills grow poor, 

And prairies lose their fat, that ones and twos 

May put their tags upon the whole. The land 

Is surely drunk. These men of millions earn 

The execrations of posterity ; 

And should their memory last, its curse wall be 

Their epitaph. Such are the evils, then. 

That claim our thought and call for remedy. 

With thousand thundertongues of urgency. 

A remedy may not be readily 

Applied; and yet maturer thought must find 

A remedy. The pressure of events — 

Those whips of Providence — will force us on 

To righteousness. But here I close. 

Tom Stone. Well, chaps, 

I'm not a speechifier ; but I think 
We needn't hunt a hundred lifetimes for 
A remedy in such a case as this. 
The shirks have got a thousand sneaking ways 
Of keeping fat by trickery ; for work 
And they are mortal enemies. It's strange 
They weren't too lazy to be born. No doubt 
It tired 'em so it takes a lifetime for 
'Em to get rested up. The only part 
Of 'em that takes to work is tongue and jaw. 
And so we have 'em peddling lightning-rods 
And churns, washing-machines and books. 
And patent humbugs just enough to fill 



29 

A dictionary ; all a-snuffing round 

A fellow's pocket-book, imagining 

They have a fortune by the ear ; and so, 

I say, they wag their everlasting tongues 

To have us keep them up in laziness. 

And then our merchants bleed us on our goods ; 

And we grow lean while they are fat as pork. 

And next, the landlords take their weekly toll 

And screw us till they make us grunt. And then 

We have the big-bugs — the monopolists 

And millionaires — the leeches sucking like 

They had a thousand mouths. Now I'm the one 

To slam the door on all the tribe of shirks. 

And sit down on the other fellows with 

A slosh. It's no use talking, laziness 

Has struck us like the cholera. It's no 

Skin-deep affair. It's stuck right in ; and it 

Is spreading. Nearly every one's afraid 

Of getting dirty hands, though not afraid 

Of doing dirty meanness. And it's come 

To this : men's pay increases as they get 

Away from work toward stylish laziness. 

It's time that something should be done; so I 

Propose we organize and try to do it. 

JoBLiNSKY. Alias, the Dark Lantern. 
One man has talked of law, and I have faith 
In law ; for all we see and feel has law. 
From sky, and earth and all that is, I learn 
The ways of law ; and so the way the laws 
Of men should work. I look and see the cloud 



30 

That sits and on the sick earth looks so sad ; 
And while I look it bursts and lills the air 
-With fire and noise. It wipes its eyes from tears 
And leaves us with a smile ; and then the air 
Is sweet, and earth is no more sick. And next 
I look on earth, and there is filth and stuff 
We do not want. We feed it to the fire. 
That makes it smoke ; and when the smoke is gone 
The bad is gone. And so the laws of sky 
And earth have taught me this : The foul wrongs 

done 
By men must be burned up with fire and make 
All clear, and clean, and sweet. Now men, the earth 
Is full of wrong. The rieh ride down the poor 
And do them foul. And yet the rich live on 
The poor, like lice on cows, and make them lean ; 
And so the poor are sick. And this is stufi" 
That fire could flame and clear the air. And there 
I see a place to put the law. No more 
I have to say; but when you want to do. 
Count me two men for that. 

•John Swab : Alias, the Deteetive. a Hunchhack 
Dwarf. 

Our meeting takes 
A biologic course, evolving from 
The chairman's one primordial thought, which was 
A germ that now has variated on 
To revolution. Evolution thus 
Has evoluted to an r beyond 
Itself. Now let us ponder o'er the fact — 



31 

Which science proves to be a granite fact — 
That while conformity to type is writ 
Most legibly on nature's page, and signed 
And sealed by Fate, there is a tendence towards 
Reversion to primordial types. And should 
The vital modifier of the molecules 
Become inert, our order will receive 
A protophlastic trend ; which monishes 
To diligence. Be vigilant. Have more 
Eyes than a dragon-fly, that looks all ways 
At once ; more constancy than gravity, 
Which never tires. 

A YoicE. Don't elocute. 

Another. ^ I see 

No 'cute about it. 

Another. Let him go on. The 

Dwarf knows p ain't pudding. 

The Detective. _ We need to watch 

The genesis of things for inklings of 
Development and help the lower forms 
To variate aright. Get down then to 
The crude bathybius of society 
And, by gradations, from the polyp up 
To consummated and sublimest life. 
Our nature would impel us to array 
Ourselves against the rich, until we maj 
Develop to an equal state. We must 
Develop or become extinct, by the 
Unerring law that sets its foot upon 
The weakest with exterminating weight. 



32 

Now, as a vacuum is abhorred elsewhere, 
So we ourselves abhor to he extinct. 
Then try for an evolving impetus. 

The Smiler. I swan ! but the detective is a great 
Orthography gabblist, who heaps 
Up capital in millionated words 
And threatens a monopoly. Well now, 
A simple chap like me can say his say 
In words that are the wheelbarrows of speech, 
And not mouth everlasting nothingness. 
And here we need no unabridged to say 
A rascal is no saint. We need not hunt 
For scientific flummery to tell 
That if we don't do something nothing will 
Be done. Go to the mule and learn of him. 
When an idea gathers in his head 
It goes in lightning to his tail ; and when 
That member zig-zags, look for thunderbolts. 
Let our ideas get into our heals. 
Then kick and make monopoly see stars. 
That is my plan for evoluting things. 

Bob Snag. — Look where we may are fellows 

wasting what 
They have not earned. Full half their time is spent 
Devising means of squandering money on 
Themselves. Their wives and daughters are at 

home. 
Dissecting aches, and analyzing throbs 
And twinges, as they loll in luxury, 
With troops of servants pampering them to death. 



33 

And docters tugging at the threads of life, 
Blistering their pocket-books and dosing them. 
These are the men that talk in lofty style 
About the rights of capital. But what 
Is capital? A god that ^e must bow 
Before, and give our life to gain its smile? 
What ! we who dig th^s gold tha^t makes the god 
Bow down to it ! The rights of capital 
Are as the rights of stolen goods, except 
As it is toil transmuted into gold. 
The rights of capital are but the right 
Of use for those whose toil it represents. 
But we have chinned it long enough ; and now 
-Tis time we organize and set the truth 
On fire, and bear it as a torch throughout 
The land, to light us to a better day. 

Scene. — The Detective's stove and a hack room. 

Detective. Come back, gents, to my private 
room. Take seats. 

Bob Snag. What's n^D ? I see your arm is slung. 

D. Well sir. 

This morning I was making a profound 
Experiment upon my mule, and found 
The creature contumaciously self-willed. 
You see, that Nature, in her first essays. 
Is homogenious, and, by gradual steps. 
Keeps differentiating towards a type 
Of greater heterogeniousness, in which 
The royal intellect of man may aid. 
And being of a scientific turn 



34 

Of mind, abreast with foremost thinkers of 

The day, 1 tried to trim the creature's ears, 

To give him more the semblance of a horse. 

Hoping the other members would conform 

To tj^pe. But at the first incision with 

The shears, he seized my arm and almost crunched 

It in his mouth, copipelling my desistance. 

B. S. Would he have turned to horse or donkey 
do you think ? 

D. 'Tis problematical. He shewed 

Indeed reversionary tendencies. 

B. S. Well, that's enough of that. We have a 
plan 
On foot. I reckon you can help to set 
It up? 

D. I have the will to make the rich 
Revert to their primordial place ; and with 
The will the way. You see, in buying up 
Old clothes, I learn the situation of 
A person's premises, which knowledge tells 
Us where to plant the foot and strike. Oft as 
Necessity demands I can afford 
The information you desire. 

B. S. Well now. 

There's going soon to be a general strike 
Of Longshoremen ; and while it lasts we mean 
To have no scabs sneak in and take the place 
Of strikers. Can you help us there ? , 

D. No doubt. 

But first the strike, i will consider then 



35 

About the survival of the fittest. 

JoBLiNSKY. . Eight now I want your help of head 
and tongue ; 
For you, I see, can give the help I need. 

B. S. That's no affair of mine and so I'll go. 
Well now. Detective, I'll remember this. 

D. And I will keep it in my secret drawer. 

YExit B. S. 

J. I want to purge a spot with fire. What rich 
Man has the most that I can touch, and I 
Will lay a red hand on that s]3ot and make 
A man of him who thinks that he is more. 

D. There is Gorman's up the river. I will 
Go and point it out to you to-morrow. 
On the way I'll tell you all you want to 
Know about the man and place. Then you will 
Be prepared to act. 

J. Act! That word is full of fire. 
My head and heart are full of it. Act — Act. 
My blood is hot, my bones are hot to act. 

Scene. — The DetpMive's hack room. 

Detective. How does the dark lantern work by 
moonlight ? Did 
You find the place exactly as I said ? 

JOBLINSKY, THE DaRK LaNTERN. Just SO. It WaS 

a place of pride, and ease, 
And sloth, and waste. And now my heart says this : 
That there I did a great proud deed of good. 
I smote the proud and rich, that ate the poor 
Man's bread, and purged a bit of wrong. I told 



36 

Not one, but went at dark and found the place, 
When the round moon was rfid. And by our stream, 
That seems so like a slice of sea that wants 
To find the place it left, I sat where three 
Big trees spread out as if to say. We hide 
And tell no tales. Soon the round moon was white. 
And made the night look like the ghost of day. 
But at my back a hill spread out its black 
Cloak where I sat and kept me hid. I saw 
The bits of boats, both up and down the stream. 
With flakes of light on them, that winked like eyes — 
Like a child's eyes that nods and wants to sleep. 
The small waves talked in low soft words that touched 
My ear and made my heart feel soft. Live things 
Were in the trees and grass, and all so glad 
They had to tell it in their way. And loud. 
And long, and sweet, a small bird piped so good 
A note I could have thought a bee might suck 
Some sweet from it. These made my heart more soft, 
Till I was full of sweet weak soul — like girls — 
And could have sat there all the night and wished 
For no more day. Then came a boat, whose shriek, 
And snort, and tramp, were as the rich man's pomp. 
Who snufi's at all the poor. It scorned the rest. 
And tost its waves, as though it shook at them 
The spray from its proud feet. That woke my 

thoughts. 
And made the blood of wrath burn hot and hate 
It as a sign of wrong. But on it went; 
And soon the swart hill hid the moon's fair face. 



37 

And laid its broad hand on the rich man's house, 
And said to me : Black be its doom and deep 
Its- grave to-night. That was the sign ; and, like 
The sign, I stole forth with a step so soft 
It had no sound ; and ere the moon could see 
The deed was done, and I lay down far off 
And saw the smoke curl up, and then the blaze ; 
And soon the red flames purged the black wrongs 

white. 
Then jumped my heart, as jumps your dog to see 
Your face, and wished that I could purge the world 
With fire — the poor sick world, that has the rich 
Man's bad, black ways to make if sick. Oh that - 
I had a life for each of my ten toes ; 
That these were ten times told ; and for each life 
The power of ten ; and for each power ten worlds 
To purge with fire ! Then I should be too great 
To be a man. The thought makes big my heart. 
D. You would evolve into a god. And who 
Knows what we shall be yet ? It may be this 
Protuberance on my back is nature's seal — 
A mystic pledge, or inkling of a change 
Of type towards ultimate perfection ; and 
A change in which the head will occupy 
An inter-physical position, as . 
The focal point of intellect, and so 
Make man a symbol of the infinite, — 
His higher powers, as radii, rounding out 
The circle of his being, that shall e'er 
Expand, until the minds of men are great 



38 

As worlds. Nay, who can prove that all the worlds 

Have not been so evolved ? or that they will not 

Still evolve until all space is filled — 

An infinite conglomerate of life ? 

The great thoughts in me seem to work that way. 

D. L. Great thoughts come not to me ; but when 
the rich 
Man eats the poor man's bread, and treats him as 
A beast whose back was made to bear his load. 
My hate is hot and I would do hot deeds. 

D. Great thoughts will come to me like sparrows 
to 
The eaves and make me reason thus : Since I 
Am come, by numberless gradations of 
Evolvement, from an inert molecule 
To be the thinker of these thoughts, why not 
Milleniums of evolvement make men gods ; 
And still milleniums of milleniums fill 
Infinity with one sole god, of which 
The separate godlings will be nerves, and he 
The one, the brain of all ? That would supply 
The missing link that evolution needs. 

D. L. I think not thoughts like those, but of the 
things 
I see and touch ; and they are great to me. 

D. That makes me think this nebulous orb upon 
My spinal axis is no accident 
Of superfluity. Indeed, what is 
A superfluity? Does Nature know ? 
Say rather, mortals misinterpret her 



39 

Initial motions in development. 

The azure fields have none too many stars, 

Nor earthly plains a blooming gem to spare ; 

Nor has my head a hair beyond its needs. 

But beauty all, and harmony are in 

Progressive stages towards a goal where, in 

Imperial splendor, full perfection reigns. 

In brief, I think that Nature takes, in me, 

A forward differentiating step. 

Or, otherwise, I should not have such thoughts, 

With arms elastic as infinity, 

Outreaching towards the still unreachable. 

Oft as the afflatus of such like thoughts 

Like lightning strikes, I wonder whether all 

The scientists have like development. 

D. L. I know them not. But earth I know is 
not 
A clam for one great throat to gulp, nor two, 
Nor ten ; but 'tis a loaf, made large, to give 
A slice to each. Now can you tell me more 
What spots to purge with fire ? 

D. Yes, I must help 

You to supplant the saurian wrongs of earth 
With better types of life and evolute 
The race. Think of the dragons, lizards, and 
The things whose names need two long breaths 

before 
The tongue can leave the final syllable. 
So hideous are the wrongs oppressing us. 
'Tis infamous, infernal, damnable, 



40 

The way that most of us are forced to drudge 

And, after drudging, scrimjD and feel a void 

Where they are billions with their gluttony. 

I know a score of places that are but 

Grand monuments of greed — extortion — theft — 

Blood — death, whose grandeur mocks the poverty 

They cause. These must no more offend our eyes. 

The}^ scandalize the spirit of the age. 

And, like the irony that slaps us in 

The face with love's own adjectives, provoke 

Retaliation in a brusquer way. 

We must retaliate. We must rebuke 

The wrong or merit all the injuries that 

We get, which, while the remnant of a soul 

Is left in us, we cannot brook. Go forth 

Then with your red hand well equipped, to strike 

Humiliation to their haughty hearts. 

D. L. Strike? Yes, while there's a match to 
strike and I 
Have one hand left ; and I will give them woe. 
And may the Avinds by day wail woe! And may 
The black night weave a web of woe ! And may 
The hot lips of the fire say woe ! AAd may 
The white heaps of their wealth be weeds of woe ! 
And may their hearts be gashed by swords of woe ! 
And when their bones move mav thev creak with 



woe 



And when they think may all their thoughts be woe! 
And when they hope may hope all turn to woe! 



41 

Scene — On Mam Stmet. 
Detective. Look at that carriage and the crea- 
ture in 
It. Two fat horses — driver— footman — all 
To draw about that puny burlesque on 
Humanity, that is reverting from 
The typic woman to ,an ape ! See what 
A pucker pride has put upon her lip ! 
And how her haughtiness has starched her neck! 
She keeps a business sharper's wits upon 
The strain to deck that dried-up carcass with 
It's trumperies. The other week he had 
A corner on the country's bread and squeezed 
A hundred thousand from the poor man's loaf. 
Oh the deep hellishness of such men's deeds ! 
Six feet of rope around his neck might do 
A righteous deed. But lacking that, I'll shew 
You where he lives. Then let him have a taste 
Of his deserts, in fiery protest 'gainst 
His wickedness. The preachers talk about 
A hell. If hell there be, then hell is just, 
And fire a righteous executioner ; so let 
Us forestall hell with hints of hell. 

DarkLantrn. Fire! 

Right's right hand! purge this bad man's deeds. 

Scorch him. 
And leave a burn like live coals in his heart. 

D. We need be careful here. The world has ears. 
D. L. Yes, ears, like beasts of prey; and hands 
and heads— not hearts. 



42 

D. Another geologic age 
May evolute the heart. Here, let us take 
This car ; it goes within a mile of where 
You want to see. I guess we'll foot the mile — 
At least, enough of it to shew the place. 
Scene — In the puUic hall. 

The President. Over a hundred joined to-night. 
Now there 
Is opportunity for some remarks. 
Seeing, however, how much time is gone. 
Let those who speak have some clear point 
To make aiid stick to that. 

Tack Helms. I've got a point ; 

And see if I don't make it stick in some 
Infernal rascal's hide. I needn't tell 
You that we railroaders are on a strike. 
It happens so I know a thing or two 
About some members of our company. 
There's Tomkins, one of 'em. He went out west 
As agent to the Indians, and his pay 
For four years came to sixteen thousand ; out 
Of which he saved a hundred thousand. So 
Much were the redskins in the lurch. Well now, • 
Had you or I but taken from his desk 
One dollar of that hundred thousand, he 
Who took it would have been a thief. Then what 
Is he who took the whole but so much more 
A thief, who ought to wear his stripes and do 
The state a little honest work? And that 
Aint all. He went to Minnesota, where 



43 

He played another scurvy trick. But first 

He greased some congressmen with part of what 

He stole, and got a land-grant for a road. 

That done, he made a mighty blow, and 

Got the state to issue bonds to help him build, 

Then sold his interest for a million clear 

•And left for here, where he invested in 

Our road. And so the scoundrel comes to be 

Our lord and have us in his power. And since 

His pile don't grow as he would like it, he 

Intends to squeeze another dime a day 

From us. We ought to keep such scoundrels in 

A cage, feed 'em an ounce of bread a day 

And take 'em round to let the people spit 

On 'em. Now aint I made a point ? 

Bia Bill. That's so. 

Others. Bully fd? Jack ! That sticks. 

J. H. And there is Quirk. 

He got his pile by skimming Michigan 
Of pine. Whoever got the pine, he got 
The butt end of the pay. From there he stepped 
Into Nevada, bought a hill or two. 
Went east with specimens of silver ore 
And made a boom for shares. That netted him 
So much he hardly knew. With that he came 
And got a big slice in our road. And that's 
Another of the precious scoundrels who 
Have fleeced the country of its wealth, to live 
In style and waste enough to keep the like 
Of us in bread. He too, the cormorant! 



44 

Would cut us down a dime a day. It takes 

Fine genius to be smart as that ! Neither 

Has ever done a day's work in a day; 

But, like a horse-thief, they have watched their 

chance. 
While others slept, and ran away with what 
The country owned. And now they've got their grip 
Upon our throat, I tell you what — there must 
Be some thing shaky with the law where such 
Things are. I guess that where there is so much 
Of ingrain scoundrelism in them e'en 
Each seperate worm that feeds at last upon 
There carcass will be struck with greed and want 
to gorge the whole. 

A YoiCE. A taste would poison them. 

J. H. It's time that those who do the work 
should get • 

The pay ; and I am in for anything 
That shews a wa}^ of doing it. 

Dick Sledge. Our road 

Is owned by one — a thief, whose father was 
A thief. 

A VOICE. There's grit. 

D. S. It's true as truth can be. 

Did either of them ever do more work 
Than you or I to pay the country for 
So large a slice ? No sir ! How have they got 
It then ? By playing business-poker down 
In Shark Street. They were sharp enougli, and mean 
Enough, to gouge the country through the tricks 



45 

They played on others, when the sole return 
They made us was, with thumb-and-fingers to 
Their nose, to wink their compliments. Next, by 
Degrees, they bought and bought till now they have 
An iron collar round the country's <4ieck. 
The son has millions in the country's bonds. 
For which he has not worked as hard as us — 
The country's money in the country's bonds — 
That he may settle grandly down and have 
The interest fall in millions on him like 
The dew — so easily it comes while he 
Is smoking his cigar. Some simpletons 
Have gushed themselves stone blind ; because, for- 
sooth". 
The country feels his cash. But every cent 
of it belongs to her ; and being hers. 
The interest is not his. Some blow about 
His liberality ; because a good 
Streak takes him now and then, to give what is 
Of less account to him than were a dime 
To other men. What would we think of one 
Who stole our purse, and from the interest on 
Our money treated us to candy once 
A year ? Would we go slobbering over him 
With compliments and laugh ourselves into 
Ecstatic fits ? I'd like to know what right 
He has to spend some thirty thousand in 
A night's display, to glorify himself, 
As though he were the god of wastefulness. 
While leaguing with the rest to scrimp us in 



46 

Our pay, whose labor foots the bill and keeps 

The country on its pins. He gets, per year. 

The pay of twenty thousand men. Does he 

Return as much as they for what he takes ? 

Or is there the equivalent of them 

In his one hide ? Nay, is there of a score ? 

No sir! I'd like to try him on the road 

A day. Then his excess is either too 

Much by so much, or what we get too little. 

Such things are an infernal shame. I tell 

You boys, I'd like to smash the rascal's snout. 

I move that we resist them to the death ; 

And let them keep their precious bones indoors — 

The vermin that they are ! 

Bob Snag. I only know 

That those we work for get what others earn. 
They get the eorn and we the cob ; and now 
They want to nibble down the cob. But we 
Ain't going to submit. We're just chock full 
Of fight, and there'll be blood a-leaking if 
They don't look out. A dog's a worthless cuss 
That has his tail stepped on and won't shew fight. 
They step on ours, and we have filed our teeth ; 
So let 'em watch their shins. And now, if we 
Can help things on I hope we will. 

Dark Lantern. Such men 

Are warts that earth wants not. A spark of fire 
Would take them off" the skin ; and I for one 
Will help to take them ofi". Speak on and I will do. 

President. The time is come to close. We hope 



47 

The day will come when, in exigencies 

Like this, we may afford substantial aid 

To those who struggle with the tiger-powers 

Of wealth. At present we. can only give 

Them sympathy and words of cheer — which have 

Their worth — and these we give as sacredly 

As holy water from the stoups of our 

True hearts. Their cause is just; and even should 

They fail in this attempt, they must at last 

Obtain some fair adjustment 'twixt themselves 

And those whose lordish tyranny now treads 

Them down. Ages have burned their incense round 

Oppression's altar; but his doom is sure. 

Sure as the stars are in the silent blue, 

A mighty change will come. Not always can 

This country halt the way it does. We have 

Too much of liberty to get no more ; 

Too much of power to be forever wronged. 

Our fathers found a continent that teemed 

With wealth — with mines and forests ample for 

Our needs, and fruitful acres that can fill 

A billion mouths. These cannot always be 

A common plunder for rapacious wolves. 

If not our judgment, our necessities 

Will bid the greed of money-maniacs halt. 

The old-world notions of the rights of power 

Must yield before the claims of equit5 . 

Since this is thought, it is begotten ; since 

'Tis just, it is a germ of life; and since 

It lives, the years will bring it to the birth. 



48 

What has evolved from past conditions is 

A guaranty of full equality. 

Our mission is to aid in that evolvement. 

The Detective. Congratulations, Mr.President, for 
Using scientific terminology, 
Which is the summit, yea, the highest peak 
Of speech. We are evolving in the style 
Of our discussion ; and I hope that in 
The subject matter we shall witness a 
Survival of the fittest at the last. 

The Smiler. I move that we evolve ourselves 
away ; 
For I resolva that I'll evolve for home. 

Scene. — The Detective's lack room. 

Detective. You gave my lord an evening call 
and left 
Your card illuminated well. No doubt, 
He will remember it. How did you get 
Along in paying compliments ? 

Dark Lantern. Most well. 

The night when all the signs had tongues that said, 
Go on, I went ; and dauj^ it was — so dark 
It hid me in its cloak, and hid the stars. 
I heard the dog you told me of. He barked 
And shook his chain, which told me where he was. 
I crossed the wall and threw at him some meat — 
The kind that cures the barks — and then lay still 
And heard him eat the meat. I lay and lay, 
And heard him whine and scratch ; then all was still. 
By that time I was stiff" with cold, and rose 



49 

And stretched my limbs. I had been sick with 

thoughts 
That found my mind and asked no leave, but walked 
Right in and shut the door. Their face was sad 
As if a friend were sick, and made my heart 
Go thump. What if a babe be in that house? 
They said. Can that be good which burns it up? 
Can that be pure which blots a pure life out? 
No no! I said; so proud a jade as that 
Can give no spark of life, with Death's hand on 
Her own. She is a speck that sticks to earth, 
Like dirt, and makes us want to cleanse the earth 
To take it off. What if the minx did burn? 
The world would but be rid of so much wrong. 

D. I vow, Joblinsky, but you almost had 
A woman's squeamishness. 

D. L. What, were I one? 

D. You would have had a wishy-washy heart 
And shrunk away. 

D. L. Ah well, you seem to know. 

But as I thought of her and saw her mince, 
And toss her head, and hook her nose, and screw 
Her lip, and stab me with her eye, my heart 
Grew strong. My cold blood warmed and got on fire. 
That, said my heart, is what will cure the pride ^ 
And make wrong right. It was my sign. I found 
A shed, and coal, and wood. The night was then ^ 
As if the sky had shut one eye and left 
The light of one. I made a heap of things 
That burn ; and when I stood a long way off. 



50 

I saw the big blaze burst and flap its wings 

In the deep dark. And soon came screams and 

shouts ; 
And then I hoped the speck of dirt was gone. 

D. Bravo! The times demand that wealth 
should be 
Kebuked. We must destroy the whip of j)ower 
Rather than have it plied upon our back. 
You overcame the woman in your heart 
And let the man develop strength. Tis well 
To watch reversionary tendencies. 
Unless we did we all might turn to women. 

D. L. You seem to rate her low. What is she in 
your mind ? 

D. Only a bit of nervous stuff", 
Which palpitates and screams, and weeps and faints, 
And dies a thousand times, then lives to spite us. 
And more 'tis so the more you pamper her. 
She makes a study of herself and thinks 
Herself a fragile thing, which everyone 
Must handle like a snowflake, lest she melt. 
I sometimes look at her and wish that sex 
Could diff'erentiate to give her strength. 

D. L. The truth in what you^say half makes one 
mad. 
Yet all are not like that. 

D. I never saw 

One otherwise; which may be my misfortune. 
At all events, it proves the rule. 

D. L. One I 



51 

Have seen whose nerve is strong, whose heart is 

brave 
As mine ; and she would dare as much. 

D. It cannot be. What contradicts the laws 
Of nature cannot be ; and nature in 
An age like this is taken at her worst — 
At least, so far as woman is concerned ; 
And so I more than doubt, I disbelieve. 

D. L. But I can tell you that it is ; and that 
Which is can be. 

D. That .would be womanhood 

At its ideal hight. Could I meet such 
She might develop love in me. But not 
Your waxy touch-me-not, who would collapse 
As touched with fire if you unloosed her corsets. 
Give me a brave heart in a woman's breast 
And you have found me nature's masterpiece. 

D. L. If aught I know, I know that I could find 
one such. 

D. You have not touched her heart or you 
Had felt it flutter when she saw a mouse 
Or felt a spider crawling on her neck. 

D. L. 'Tis true, I have not touched her heart ; 
and yet 
I would not boast my heart more brave than hers. 

D. To be acquainted with her I would give 
The best I have. 

D. L. Tut ! would you give your heart 

And 80 be poor ? 

D. If she accepted there 



52 

Would be exchange, and I should be enriched ; 
If not, I could not lose. But I must prove 
Her mettle to believe. 

D. L. I know her well. 

There is on earth no friend I love so well 
As she. 

D. Your sweetheart, eh ? 

D. L. Not as you mean ; 

Nor can she be ; as I could tell you why. 

D. Ha ha ! I see. Your sister. 

D. L. No,, not that; 

And yet as dear. 

D. Then I can love her on 

Your word. Indeed, my heart already is ' 

As when the sunshine strikes an icicle — 
Inclined to melt with warm impassionment. 

D. L. Now, by the bonds that bind us, be it as 
You say. You yet shall see her eye to eye. 
Then blame me if she be not what I say. 

(A hoy sings at the door.) 

Love's blind the people say ; 
But hate is blinder still. 
This has so strong a wont, 
And that, so weak a will. 
And hence, in ail they do — 
Since passion is so strong — 
The loved is always right, 
The hated, always wrong. 



53 

Though hate is super -blind, 
Revenge is blinder still. 
This has a madman's hand, 
And that, a madman's will. 
And hence, between the two. 
Is passion doubly strong. 
To frown upon the right, 
And strike to do the wrong. 



p. Love — hate — revenge. He runs the gamut of 
The feelings. But his accompaniment is false. 
Such songs are sentimental emptiness — 
The clippings of a poet's dream.s. That's all. 

{Enter Boh Snag.) 

B. S. We want your help to clear away a scab. 
You lay the trap and we will take the rat. 
To-morrow, Thursday, is a lucky day ; 
So do it in the dinner hour, and I 
Will call on you and learn the ins-and-outs 
Of what you've done. The one that has the spot 
Is Ben Boyle, foreman of a gang on 
East side, loading up the Great Mogul. We want 
To teach him what it costs to keep us out 
Of work, and give the rest a hint that they 
Can take. 

D. Say what you want and here's your man, 
Ready at all times for heroic deeds, 
With sharjDened shears to give a clip on call. 
You never catch this weasel in a nap. 



54 

B. S. Then lay your plans, that we can catch 
him on 
His way from work and clean him out as though 
The earth had swallowed him. I know the boys 
Will give you lots of custom for it. 

D. Good. 

The sly old rat may find his match this time. 
Scene — £y the east side docks. 

Detective. Now don't you want to treat your- 
self to day? 
Here is a pair of pantaloons that must 
Have cost five dollars, new. I bought them from 
A big-bug's servant for a song. And see — 
The newness of the nap is on them still. 
Well, as I got a bargain I will give 
One too. You can have them for two dollars. 
Cheap as dirt and good as gold. 

Boyle. Not to-day. 

D. I want to sell you something anywa}^ 
Come here. Come. Well, I want to tell you 

something. 
( Whispering.) I've got the wind of something you 

have need 
To hear. This way. (B. folloios.) The strikers 

have a plot 
Against your life. 

B. How do you know? 

D. Don't ask 

Me how I know. I know, and that's enough. 
I've told enough to make my life not worth 



55 

A cast-off shoe if they should find it out. 
Their plan is this : when all of you quit work 
To-night, they mean to make a feint of an 
Attack on all the gang, but let the rest 
Escape and do the job for you. Now don't 
You squeal on me or I am gone. 

B. Not while 

Mj name is Boyle. 

D. I know their"plans so well 
That I can shew you to a certainty 
The way to trick them all. See, come up here. 

{He gop'S.) 
Now, when you quit to night, just make your chance 
To sneak away up here alone, between 
These piles of lumber. This, you see, is plank. 
That siding. That in front of us you'll have 
To climb. That brings you to the street; then use 
Your wits and legs and you are safe. It makes 
Me laugh to think how nicely you will block 
Their game. {Laughs.) Won't they be riled for 

once ! But note 
The place as you regard your life and cross 
Right here. 

B. I will. A thousand thanks to you. 
Be sure I won't forget you after this. 
But I must hurry back and shew myself. 
Scene — In an old shop. 

Bob Snag. I tell you, it's a tarnal shame to have 
These scabs come in and take a fellow's bread. 
Ain't these infernal imps of greediness 



56 

A-squeezing us to death ? And when we make 
A move to help ourselves these scabs are there 
And help to make their villainy succeed. 
I tell you boys, we have to fight or starve. 
We have to whip them or be whipped ourselves. 
It's come to be a thing of life or death 
With us. And when it comes to that, are we 
The stuff for them to walk right over and 
To blow their nose on us? I ask you. Shall 
We sit and suck our thumbs, with families 
A-starving, inch by inch, when we can help 
Ourselves ? 

The Others. By thunder no. No sir. Not much. 

B. S. Then we shall have to give a claret hint ; 
And if they can't take that, another and 
Another till they let us well alone. 
They've started in, and let them blame themselves 
For what they force us to. The fault is theirs, 
Not ours. 

Joe Black, alias Black Joe. — Well, what do you 
propose ? 

B. S. There's Boyle, 

That bosses this infernal thing. He is 
The anchor of the whole concern. Get rid 
Of him. the cable's cut and all the rest 
Will drift. Now who will volunteer? 

Slim Sam. It is 

A serious thing to take a human life. 
Which, taken, cannot be restored. 

B. S. I'm glad 



57 

You see it as a serious thing; for here's 

A game where lives by hundreds are at stake, 

And this mean scab would come and sweep the 

board. 
Our lives are threatened ; and myself and Bob 
Have other lives at stake. I swan it is 
A serious thing. And who's to blame but him ? 
His action is a challenge ; and shall we 
Be mum and die, as monkeys drown, without 
A move ? Not if i know you Sam. 

Big Bill. That's so. 

B. S. He stakes his life, and we are giving odds ; 
So I propose that we shall play the game. 
I'm ready with an ace to cover him. 
I've fixed the thing and only want some help. 

B. Joe. How many will you need? 

3. S. We four can do 

The job up neat and earn the thanks of all 
The boys. 

B. Joe. Is everything in ship-shape? It's 
A job that must be finished when begun. 

S. S. Yes, have you got it safe ? 

B. S. As safe as a 

Mosquito 'tween one's thumb and finger. Let 
Me see — it's nigh on half past four. Now boys, 
This chance or we are whipped; and hell knows 

what 
Will come of us. Who's ready for the job? 

B. Joe. Here's one. 

B. B. And me. 



58 

S. S. And me. 

B. S. That's business. Now 

I'll shew you to the place and tell the plan. 
Then we mast scatter and return by ones, 
When I will shew you how to do the thing. 
But first a treat for luck ; so come along. (JExeunt.) 
Scene — In a lumber pile. 

Slim Sam. Thundeir ! but he's an everlasting while. 

Bob Snag. He's sure to come ; you watch your 
corners well. 

S. S. I swear but this is scaly work. I guess 
1 wasn't made for this. 

B. S. It's not our fault. 

They force us to it ; and it's only what 
They're doing in a slower way. You see, 
He's boss ; he eggs them on ; and if we fix 
Him that will warn the rest and may-be save 
A score of other lives as well as ours. 
No telling what may happen if we don't. 
Besides, it's me and Joe to fix him up. 
You only — sh — here he comes. Now for 
Showing who is boss. {Boyle passes hetioeen the 
lumber piles. Big Bill and SUm Sam step before 
him.) 

Big Bill. Good evening Ben. {In turning ., he 
is stvuck by Bob Snag and falls.) 

Brack Joe. {Striking.) One more 

To make it sure. All hands. ( They throio him in- 
to the water.) 

B. S. Good-by old cuss! {Exeunt.) 



, 59 

Scene. — In the old shop. 

Slim Sa:m^ That fellow's looks keep hounding me 
both day , 
And night, and which is worse, the day or night, 
I hardly know. "Did you hear him when he 
Struck the water how he groaned ? 

Black Joe. No, that was 

No time to clear my ears of wax, and hold 
My hand behind my ear, to filter groans. 
My business called me to another place ; 
So, when he splashed, I thought of number one 
And let him have the best my legs could give. 
The job was neatly done. That's all I know. 

S. S. I tell you, but I heard him groan — and such 
A groan ! Not one that has a lusty pain 
At back of it. It was as though a soul 
Groaned, and my soul responded with a groan. 
That lifted up my scalp and made a chill 
Go tingling through my skin, and pricking pains 
At bottom of my back strike inward. Then 
The sweat poured out and I let out from there. 
That groan has left its ghost within my ear 
And haunts it like a murmur in a shell. 
Last night, it was the staple of my dreams. 
I heard the wind blow ; and it blew in groans. 
I stood beside a cataract ; and as 
It struck the bowlders, every bowlder groaned. 
I stepped sheer o'er a precipice, and woke 
Like one who has the ague ; and I saw 
His face the way it looked when he perceived 



60 

That you and Bob were back of him. My soul ! 
I hope I may not see the like again. 
I couldn't sleep another wink. I durstn't sleep ; 
And so I walked the floor. And even now 
It makes my stomach sick to think of it. 

B. J. Oh fudge ! Don't be white-livered now it's 
done. 

S. S. Well, fudge or no fudge, it has followed me 
To-day so closely that I've turned upon 
The street to see when there was no one near. (Enter 
Boh Snag.) Gosh ! how you made me start. 

B. J. Sam's got a touch 

Of chicken fever. 

B. S. Chicken fever, eh ? 

Well, time has got a score of cures for that. 
It's like a child's first bugaboo that makes 
It shy for weeks. Before he lives to be 
A hundred he will find that life means war ; 
And every fellow has to fight to hold 
His own. When he gets pounded round t he-world 
Like me, I guess he wont spend days and nights 
Trying to manufacture pity for a ^vretch 
We struck in standing for our rights. He'll find 
That pity needs to roost at home. 

S. S. I don't 

Know that ; but if my hands were clean 'twould be 
A long, long day before you caught me in 
A scrape like this. Some men aint made to kill, 
And I am one of them ; and how on earth 
I came to have a hand in it I don't 



61 • 

Begin to see. It's queer what spells one has 
Of Inlaying fool. I guess the difference twixt 
Men is, that some are always fools ; the rest 
Are fools sometimes. 

B. S. My gracious granny ! What 

A streak of blue you've got around your lip ! 
You must have had the colic in the night. 
Why, Sam, you're not beyond the baby stage. 
You need to have your gristle turn to bone 
Before you face this rough-and-tumble world. 
Blue ! Why a fellow ought to laugh to think 
How nice a job we did, without a track. 
I'll trust the water for the tales it tells. 
Golly ! but wont they scratch their heads and feel 
A trifle ticklish when they find no Boyle ? 
I guess they haxe enquired a score of times, 
'' Where's Boyle ? " " Has anyone seen Boyle ? " Ha! 

ha! 
It must be better than a penny show 
To see how eolicy the crowd is now. (Enter Big 
Bill.) 

B. B. Have you heard it ? 

B. J. Heard what ? 

B. B. The peelers have 

His body. 

B. S. By thunder ! How do you know ? . 

B. B. The boys says so, they do. 

B. S. That springs a leak ; 

For now they'll all be wide awake for tracks. {A 
pause. ) 



• 62 

B. S. Keep cool as cucumbers on ice and don't 
Be seen together, then we all may wink 
And whistle Bory-o-more. 

B. J. Sam, how pale 

You look ! 

B. S. What! got the inside shakes? Come now. 
Be chirk and sing. When my old granny was 
Young. Tighten up your jib and starboard helm. 
Listen and hear, the old brass rooster crow. 
Why Sam, we didn't make the world, but found 
It cut and dried, and have to make the best 
We can of what we have. If now and then 
We get a leathery piece to chew — why, get 
The juice out if you can, or if you can't. 
Just swallow it. But anyway, don't puke. 
Pshaw! you're like a tombstone — white, silent, and 
Your face a solemn epitaph that tells 
Of the departed soul. Now shake your dust 
And come to life again. 

S. S. I reckon we 

Must make the best we can of it, if best 
There be. 

B. S. There now, there now ! That sounds like 
Sam. 
Another sweat will bring you out all right. 
Come, take a glass ; I'm not quite out of chink. 
{Exeunt.) 
Scene. — The Detective'' s hack room. 

Detective. Where is the lady friend you told me 
of? 



63 

I hoped ere this to feast my eyes and heart 
Upon the highest evoiuted form 
In earthly guise. 

Dark Lantern. Ah ! now I see you joke ; 
And men daub not with jokes what has the best 
Place in their heart, but wash their hands when they 
Would touch its robes. 

D. By all that's great, I do 

Protest you misinterpret me. I love 
Her on your word ; for though the visual sense 
Has not received her form, the attributes 
That glorify the form are such as make 
Her glorious in my eye — more glorious to 
My heart. When can you give an introduction ? 

D. L. I might to-day. But should her heart go out 
To you and find that yours is ice she would 
Be sad ; and words would not have power to tell 
How sad my heart would feel for her ; for I 
Have none on earth more dear. 

D. Since you can love ' 

Her so she must be worthy of my love ; 
For we are so alike that what can warm 
Your heart can not be cold to mine Tell me 
Her complexion. 

D. L. As fair at least as mine. 

D. Her eyes — have they the deep black luster 
that 
Bespeaks volcanic fires, or the mild blue 
In which one looks for quiet stars aad soft 
Etherial attributes like summer clouds ? 



64 

D. L. I need be proud if mine be grey and deep 
With strength of soul as hers. 

D. Ah ! like the clouds 

That nurse the lightning in electric arms. 
And has her hair the flaxen glossiness 
Of yours, so like the tint of amber clouds ? 

D. L. I hope that mine is rich and fair as hers, 
That you may think as well of it. 

D. I think 

Your hair is worthy of your character. 
Rich hue, deep soul. I always did admire 
Your hair. 

D. L. Then hers is sure to please you well. 

D. What is her contour ? delicate in grace, 
Or brawny, like her soul ? 

D. L. It suits me to 

A dot. 

D. Then there must be affinity 
Between the two ; for only kindred souls 
Can find their ideal in each other thus ; 
And that still glorifies her character. 
For you I deem a most uncommon man ; 
To say which need not bring a blush to warm 
The cheek of modesty. You are too strong 
For that. — I vow, Joblinsky, you have fired 
My heart as never was before. I must 
Be introduced to her. But do you think 
It probable she will reciprocate 
My love ? 

D. L. Ah now ! You read my heart and I 



65 

Will tell you hers. 

D. Of course. Yet, knowing both, 

You have a base for an opinion. 

D. L. You need 

Not fear ; for she can love a great high soul 
That hates the rich and proud and smites the wrong. 
But she has such a heart that she would want 
All yours. 

D. That's noble, brave, and just to ask. 
It shews the greatness of her soul ; for which 
I but admire her all the more. She is 
A queen to rate herself so royally — 
A sage with so acute a sense of right. 
To her I consecrate my heart to its 
Last atom — yea, to its last particle 
Divisible. 

D. L. Then you shall see hey face. 
And now, what work of good have you to do ? 

D. Prudence has put her finger to her lip. 
And Caution bids us halt a little while. 
Until the opportunities evolve 
From the volcanic chaos of affairs. 
The longshore strikers have to lick the dust. 
The railroaders may have to do the same. 
And now the tyrants have their hirelings out 
Snuffing for tracks in every secret place. 
But how soon can you bring your lady friend ? 

D. L. What ! will your deep love drown you 
should I not ? 
•Now this I bid you do : look in my eye 



66 

And see her as a soft cloud in a lake, 
Which ia the ghost of what is in the sky. 
Kiss me and she shall have that kiss from you ; 
And when you give to me my soul will give 
You back as good a kiss. 

D. What ! kiss a man 

And think I have the nectar of so grand 
A w^oman's lips ! 

D. L. Let your soul give it and 

My soul will make it sweet; for her you kiss 
Through me. 

D. 'Twill be adulterated honey. 

D. L. Call me the comb and say you get it pure. 

D. Here then I kiss you, and the thought of her 
Gives sweetness to it. {Kissing Johlinshy.) 

Oh sweetness ! you kiss 
As though her soul were in your lips. Do let 
Me see her quickly as you can. 

D. L. Her soul 

Is here for all that we can see, as friends 
Are with us in our dreams. Why not ? 

{Enter Jack Helms.) 

J. H. We're whipped — 

Tarnationally whipped, from head to foot. 
But then we shewed our grit, and that is worth 
One licking anyway. Well, luck ain't all 
Upon the boss's side the penny. They 
Have had their toss-up, and we may have ours 
And change the heads and tails. Wait till we get 
A million strong, or more, and see if they 



67 

Don't have to touch their hats to us and say, 
"Please gentlemen." I hope to see that day. 
See here Joblinsky ; have you got a match ? 

D. L. Yes, all you want, and one or two to 
spare. 

J. H. We want it somewhere after dark, and the 
Dark Lantern there to strike it. 

D. L. Ah ! I see. 

No need to grease a stream to make it flow. 

J. H. All right. AVe'll shew you where the 
channel is. 



68 



CHAPTER III 



ScE^E.— 0?i Shipboard. 

Mr. Bunco. Both of us returning to the States. 
You 
Are from ? 

Mr. Norton. New York. 

B. » The Empire State ; and I 

From Hoosierdom — two of the brightest stars 
That glitter o'er the stripes ; no little boast 
Where all are so magnificent. Is not 
The States the marvel of the world ? 

N. I guess 

The world is rather reticent upon 
That point ; at least, I have not heard the world 
Express herself. 

B. That's tally one for you. 

But really, the like was never seen — 
The way things go ahead. It's touch and go 
In everything. Look at our matchless wealth — 
Enough to make the world feel beggarly ; 
The grandeur of our commerce — interstate 
And foreign — what can equal it ? Our mines. 
Forests, farms — everything upon a scale 
That whips creation out of countenance. 



69 

No wonder brother Jonathan is tall, 
With such a stimulus to pride. It is 
Enough to make a hunchback straighten out ; 
Enough to warm a toad at Christmastide. 

N. What genius does it need to spend from a 
Full pocketbook ? 

B. But then the life— the life • 

And energy there is in everything ! 
No plodding, dawdling pokiness that 
Lets its shadow run away from it. 
Up while the sun is putting on his clothes, 
And pop and go all day, like lightning with 
A thunderghost behind it. Wonderful ! 
Tut ! talk of Greece, Rome, Europe ! they are left 
To moulder in the dust of Fogeydom. 
We lack the time to read their epitaph. 
Well, Europe is the tail-end of the past 
And wags a little ; but — oh pshaw ! What's that ? 
It wags because we live to give it life. 

A. Given a sulky — short-time-horse — race course 

and 
A fast young man — the dust is sure to fly. 
We have them all, and dust enough to blind 
Ourselves. A billion people will reduce 
Our oats and— speed. We then shall learn, what now 
We fail to see, that they who fastest run 
Will soonest find the goal. 

B. The present for 
The present and the future for itself. 

N. The future cannot eat the bread we waste. 



70 

Then let us, while we dine, remember that 
Posterity must sup off what we leave. 

B. Just so ; and see how we develop things 
And leave them handy for posterity. 
It's wonderful ; it's more than wonderful, 
The way we get our railroads, boats, big farms — 
Big everything to match the country's size ; 
And all by Uncle Samuel saying. Let 
It be. 

N. More wonderful than-wise ; and yet 
Not wonderfully wonderful. Who gets 
The good of it ? 

B. Of course, the country. 

N. Let 

Us see. A railroad built. Ten millions paid 
By government, the States and people on the route. 
Pive millions pay six thousand, who have built 
The road, and five the half-a-dozen men 
Who sat and played a game of euchre then 
Gave word, Men, build that road. Which do you call 
The country— The six thousand or the six ? 

B. Undoubtedly, she gets the good of it. 

N. Yes, as she would if you and I should rob 
The treasury and pay some men to take 
Our plunder to a private place. , 

B. Well, there's 

The road ; and roads we certainly must have. 

N. In such a way? At such a price ? Built for 
Five million ; costing ten. What get we for 
The other five ? Six lawful thieves. Dear sir ! 



71 

'Tis so. Most these developments are schemes 

For theft, and our developers desire 

The country's progress as the horse thief does 

That of the stolen animal he rides. 

Few schemes of progress are on foot without 

A thief upon their back ; because we have 

So many valuables lying loose. 

Now take the road the country's money built. 

The six who played the game have got it as 

Their stakes ; because they so developed things. 

Henceforth there is a partnership in gain 

Between the country and the mighty six ; 

These helping that and that the life of these. 

The country means the millions, who divide 

One half the good. Ths six divide the other half^ 

A glorious tribute this to equal rights ! 

No wonder that we have developers ! 

Take next your mammoth farm. Fertility 

Exhausted by the mile, to feed a few 

And make a millionaire ; the country's fat 

Glutting the markets of the world, that one 

May be plethoric at the cost of all. 

And ]3rofits minimized — but swelled 

By acres to prodigious aggregates — 

By which the toiler's profits minimize, 

Who labors more and gets one tenth, or less ; 

Thus pinching millions by their "enterprise." 

Alas the country that has such developers ! 

It is but dying of giganticide. 

For what are these and other schemes of greed 



72 

But cups with which they draw the country's blood; 

Our boasts, but pledges to posterity 

To leave our gridiron and the countrj^'s bones ? 

Let us place Equity before us on 

A pedestal ; then bow, and on our knees 

Ask why a few who have the cool and hard 

Audacit) of greed, and wizard skill, 

Should thus be free to prey lipon the wealth 

That is the heritage of all, and use 

The honest toiler as an instrument — 

In the simplicity of pure intent — 

To perpetrate this gross iniquity 

And ignprantly play the suicide. 

The oracle will be as marble, mute. 

Development is incidental to 

Their greed. Fraud is the great prime faetor in 

Affairs ; for fraud it is, howe'er it gets, 

That takes our wealth without equivalent. 

B. And j^et we must develop, after all, 
Or else die poor with millions 'neath our feet. 

N. Develop what? Not covert theft, but toil ; 
Not leagues of land, but character; not mines 
So much as men, nor cliques as citizens. 
Thus far we legislate the trickster up, 
The toiler down. We give facilities 
To Knavery in its craft, and fill the path 
Of Industry with stumbling-blocks. We bend 
The knee of sycophants to Genius — that 
Is oft but pampered Indolence — and warp 
Our nose at- hands that touch the dirt. Yes sir. 



73 

We deify the drone that lives to eat 

What others earn, and step on him who earns 

What others eat. So true is this, that we 

Esteem those lowest whom we need the most. 

Those highest whom we need the least. Thus wealth 

And social status grade from industry 

To throne-hights of imperial laziness. 

Who does the most is least. Who does the least 

Is most. Thus industry is handicapped. 

We need a gospel whose beatitudes 

Are based on worth, as gauged by what 

We do to meet the common wants. The prime 

And never ceasing wants of man are the 

Imperative; and that which meet^them must 

Be deemed superlative. Our dudish whims 

And trumperies — the tri-fies of a day — 

The jingling emptinesses that we drool 

On, are as nothing to our mother's milk. 

B. But brains deserve the highest market price. 
Why, any mule has muscle. It is brains 
That wins. 

N. Xes, wins, not earns. Pray what is brains 
As a commodity ? Must it be weighed 
By pennyweights and valued by carats — 
Each organ have its own specific price ? 
Then cry down muscle ; let us be all brains 
And dwell in castles made of air, be clothed 
With sunshine and subsist on angels' food. 
But while we still are muscle, flesh, and bone. 
And get along in a material way. 



74 

Muscle will be a necessary thing ; 

Hence were it premature to cry it down. 

Or give to brains preeminence, then grade 

It in the bulk — by quality, not kind — 

And cultivate the universal brains. 

For why have muscle minus brains when we 

Can have it plus ? The germane blunder of 

The ages shews right here — a blunder now 

Become a petrified oppression and 

A suicidal wrong. Muscle has been 

Belittled, and degraded that it might 

Be little, then denied its rights. Toil has 

Been plebeianized, the toiler doomed, by scant 

Reward, to be the crafty sluggard's drudge. 

Who gives with greatest faithfulness his time. 

His energies, his life, to aid the weal 

Of all, is trodden down, and then condemned 

For being down, and there, by arrogance 

Of egotistic tyranny, is doomed 

To stay, unless, by some herculean feat. 

He smites the hydra of society 

And gains a place with men. 

B. You cannot mean 

That all must share alike, incompetence 
And indolence be deemed at par. Then were 
There no incentives to excel. 

N. I mean 

The opposite. I mean, democracy 
Within the realm of toil ; that quantity 
And quality — not aristocracy 



75 

Of kind — should be the giiage of its reward. 

I mean, that faithfulness in any branch 

Should equalize the possibilities 

In that with any other branch. I mean, 

That we should legislate to raise the poor. 

Assume the abnormalty of their 

Condition and restore them as w^e do 

The sick. Remove the pestilential cause 

Of most their poverty and wretchedness — 

The fumes that have the scent of brothel, blood, 

And every poisonous stench in one — instead 

Of leaving these for weakly natures to 

Inhale, that barrel-paunches may distend. 

Degrade no class by a degrading pay 

For faithful w^ork ; but make it possible 

For all to rise. Trust not the wretch w^hom we 

Have cursed with an adverse environment 

To doom his child to dungeon ignorance. 

In brief : restrain the rich and help the poor 

To rise. No prudent shepherd turns his Hock 

To feed upon the mow and leaves the goats 

To waste what ought to feed the sheep. Yet so 

Have we. And while the goats grow sleek, we stroke 

Their backs and kick the sheep, whose wool must 

keep 
Us warm. And then we compliment ourselves ; 
Because the scrambler makes the fodder fly. 
ScEXE. — In the public hall. 
Norton. My brothers ! I esteem this otSce as 
The highest place to which I could be called — 



76 

To shape their thought, and guide their action, who 

Would recognize a Human Brotherhood. 

Now, by the grace of friendship and your votes 

Elected President, I shall proceed 

To state my views — first of society 

At large, its wrongs and rights, then how those 

wrongs 
May be redressed, the rights secured. The past 
Has been a worshiper of Power ; nor is 
The present free from that idolatry. 
'Twas first the brawny force of brutish men ; 
And then the force of favored intellects ; 
And now of unrestricted wealth. And each 
Of them has had its abject devotees. 
The first made nations stagger as it strewed 
The earth with skulls. The next, by cunning, yoked 
Mens' minds with false philosophies of life 
And made them beasts of burden to their peers. 
The last — as ruthless as its ancestors — 
Holds a hard hand upon our loaf 
And makes us do obesiance for our slice. 
Power may be Liberty's right arm. And such 
It is when it insures our rights. But when 
Infringing on the rights of others, it 
Is despotism, gloze it as we may. 
Ask, What is right? It is an equal chance 
To share the common stock, by common toil. 
And be protected by the common arm ; — 
For Dives no more ; for Lazarus no less. 
And now I ask, Have yo\x an equal chance ? 



77 

In view of all the facts I answer. No ; 

And thousand -throated laws of people yet 

Unborn will emphasize that No. To have 

Your children doomed to disability 

Because of ignorance that is entailed 

By ages of oppression, gives you not 

An equal chance. To be entrammeled with 

The prejudices of a social state 

That darker days have fastened on you, gives 

You not an equal chance. To have men look 

On you as on a lower order and 

To legislate you to a lower place, 

Gives not an equal chance. To add your share 

Unto the total of the nation's wealth. 

Yet not receive in measure as j^ou give, 

Gives not an equal chance. To do a work 

That more contributes to the country's needs. 

And yet receive less pay than those who do 

The less, gives not an equal chance. To make 

It possible for an insatiate greed. 

And expert cunning, to monopolize 

Their rounded millions by their wits, gives not 

An equal chance. To let the millionaire 

Transmit his spoil to ravenous hands, gives not 

An equal chance. To let these legatees 

Employ their wealth as lever-power to gain 

Them more, gives not an equal chance. In all 

These ways you have been robbed, and are ; robbed of 

Your rights ; robbed of the dearest elements 

Of liberty. 



78 

Big Bill. That's so. 

N. And here I state 

An axiomatic, adamantine truth; 
Whoe'er is privileged beyond ourselves 
Has more than right or we have less. And power 
Is privilege; and wealth is power; and who 
Has wealth bej^ond his share is privileged 
To be a despot ; which is wrong. The rich 
Will say that we have equal privilege 
With them of getting wealth. I answer, 'Tis 
Akin to savager}^ to make the land 
A carcass and allow the strong to gorge 
And starve the weak. I answer, Eight is 
Not the slave, it is the lord of Power. The power 
To brain me gives to none the right. No more 
Does power to rob. The power to take by force 
The product of my toil gives none the right. 
No more does power to take by artfulness ; 
Nor more the product of the country's toil. 
We ask not such equality. We want 
No partnership in wrong, but right. We make 
The substance of our lives a common stock ; 
Then we demand the worth of what we pay. 
We ask no more ; and we protest against 
The use of false keys by the more adroit. 
But some expatiate on the rights of wealth. 
That has no rights to which men have no right. 
And such is wealth that multiplies their power. 
And such is power from wealth that is not earned. 
I ask, can much create the right to more ? 



79 

I ask, is evidence of what is paid 

But proof of what the country Qwes ? I ask, 

Must rich men melt their gold to manacles 

And make us slaves, then wax sarcastic by 

Reminding us of our equality ? 

Should wealth keep gathering in these focal hoards. 

To what stupendous tyranny must their 

Oppressions grow ! We, relatively, should 

Be serfs to those who held our loaf, ourselves. 

Indeed, our syndicates are money-kings, 

Whose millions rule the separate realms of wealth 

And threaten us with iron sceptered wrongs. 

They rob us from the cradle to the grave. 

And squeeze our corpse in sepulture for blood. 

We hear the claims of genius trumpeted. 

Which, nineteen times in twenty, means but shirk, 

But give us genius of the genuine kind. 

What then ? A pivot-fact is overlooked. 

The product of the past— its brain and brawn — 

Is common property, on which we all 

Have equal claim. Who draws on this is so 

Far debtor to the common fund and earns 

But profit on the capital. But men 

Have been so purblind to the fact that, when 

One blinked the debt and claimed the principal. 

The law allowed the fraud. He thus 

Has been regarded for the genius of 

Our ancestors. As well reward one for 

The railroads that the country's money built. 

Because he made a better coupling for 



80 

Their cars. But ask, Is'genius such that he 
Whose services are needed most deserves 
The least ? Must one be priveleged to waste 
And others doomed to want, because the first 
Effeminates us while the other feeds ? 
Is Nature's plan, a blessing for a few 
And for the rest a curse, that genius is 
So multiform ? And must their penalty 
Be poverty whose genius craft taboos ? 
But why go further, like a ferrit, through 
The burrows of their sophistry? Brothers ! 
We are the footballs of the lords of power. 
Booted with wealth, they kick us to and fro. 
Big Bill. That's so. 
N. We must assert the might of right. 
As they the right of miglit, and rouse ourselves 
To leave the graveclothes of the past, and in 
A resurrected manhood stand upon 
An equal level with the favored ones. 
Yet understand me here. While I denounce 
Their lordly power, and breathe my protest, with 
The utmost emphasis of soul, against 
Their usurpations, I do not forget 
That they have been, and are, supported by 
The sanctions of the law. And few of us, 
'Tis probable, would spurn if offered us, 
What they possess. 
B. B. That's so. 

A Voice. {In an undertone.) Bill's right this 
time. 



81 

N. The primal wrong, we see, is in the law. 
Correct it, we correct resultant wrongs. 
'Twere well to note that what is rooted in 
The centuries cannot be uprooted in 
A day. Nor is it by a cyclone of 
Revenge that we can serve ourselves. To wreck 
Our neighbor will not build us up. What reared 
The wrong, reversed, must tear it down. But how 
Can we reverse? Prevent monopolies 
Of land. Our life is in it. Let it be 
For homes, not fortunes ; for the many, not 
The few. Confine the working of our mines 
Within the bounds of our necessities ; 
Nor let a dozen make us jackals, while 
Their pockets hold the lion's share ; yea, while 
The country buys their surplus up, to save 
It from decay and make them sleek. In all 
Its railroads let the State hold stock, to have 
Its finger on their pulse ; and let it press 
The profits to the lowest point, to check 
The growth of greed ; nor let it millionize 
A few. Tax anacondic syndicates — 
Which make the toiling citizens their prey — 
Upon a rising plane. They need a scotch 
To make them ease their coils. Our patent laws 
Must be revised. Let manufacturers 
Compete on paying license for the right 
And royalty on what they make — and so 
Prevent the bloat of huge monopolies, 
The breath of whose extortions blights the bloom 



82 

Of trade and turns a blessing to a curse. 

And do not roj^alize the patentee 

With royalty, giving a Morse or Howe 

The crown that other hands had wrought, because 

They added each a gem. Tax wealth upon 

A sliding scale ; for 'tis her wealth must meet 

The country's bills ; and they who hold it hold 

It but in trust. Tax it when death ensues 

From one to seventy-five per cent. By such 

Devices we may part prevent, part cure, 

This dropsy that is threatening us with death. 

That such were just 'tis clear. 'Tis needful for 

The general good; and on the good of all 

Hangs that of each. The individual needs 

Not what would keep a host ; and hence 

He wrongs a host in hoarding what they need. 

And is not his: and aught that overmetes 

His toil cannot be his. The dead has ceased 

His wants, powers, rights; nor must we recognize 

The ghost of his prerogative and let 

Posthumous proxies have transmitted power 

To scourge the living. Whence it came is where 

His wealth belongs. In brief — the motto for 

The coming time is this : Who earns 7niist have: 

Nor more nor less than ivhat he earns. Towards this 

The index finger of the present points ; 

Towards this the caravan of progress moves. 

And now I say, Go on and agitate. 

Make wings for truth and let her fly abroad. 



83 

( On the street.) 

Bob SNAg. What think you of our President? 
He knows a thing or two. 

Lew Lurk. His talk has too much twoness. 

B. S. Why now, I thought he gave the sharks 
slam-bang. 

L. And who would fish without a bait ? I've seen 
These split-tongued gentlemen before to-day. 
They talk on both sides of a fence at once. 
Oh yes ! Denounce the rich, to tickle us, 
Then talk of righting things by law ; as though 
The villains didn't make the laws to suit 
Themselves. I tell you, there's a crack in all 
Such talk. But I'm not cracked enough to swallow it. 
This waiting — having patience — -letting things 
Work out, means talk instead of do. But I've 
A heap of faith in doing something, and 
In doing it at once. Then see how slick 
The way they made him President. They must 
Have thrown their ropes and got the gang-plank out 
Before he reached the dock. No time to speak 
Or think before the thing wag done. It's true 
He knows a thing or two. 

B. S. Well, anyway, 

He's smart. 

L. Yes, smart enough to make us smart. 

(Scene — The Detective'' s lack room.) 

Detective. Has not your lady friend come with 
you yet? 



84 

Dark Lantern. That theme was last and now 
is first with you. 

D. I vow, Joblinsk}^, but you tantalize me 
With your tardiness. 'Twere better not 
To tell of Paradise than close the gates 
Against my hopes. Come, let me see 
The only one that I have dared to love. 
She must be an uncommon creature thus 
To rapture me unseen. Men say that mind 
Can act on mind without regard to space. 
And verily my soul is magnetized 
By hers. Tell me that I shall see her ere 
Another sun is crimsoned in the west. 

D. L. What more can you than love ? And that 
you say 
You do. What more can she than love? And that 
I say she does. The proof is in your heart, 
As you have said. But I can tell you more. 
Your love has seen your face and likes you well. 
And calls you love, and says your kiss was sweet. 
And that she hopes it was a drop of a 
Full sea that she may drain. 

D. Excuse me if 

I play the fool, as every man does once. 
But what was love has evoluted to 
A passion, and I feel exalted, by 
The law of differentiation, to 
A higher type of being. You, perhaps, 
Have not attained to this, and cannot know 
The scientific potency of love, 



85 

Whose furnace fires make more than trickles from 

A cold heart's icicles, distilling light, 

Etherial spirit in the heated still, 

Which, for receiver, wants another heart. 

Nay, surely, if this power had touched your heart. 

Your pity would have wings for me. 

D. L. What would 

You have ? 

D. Herself, and blend our lives in one. 

D. L. Sure as I know her heart that wish is hers. 
But she would know how brave 3^our love can be — 
How much it dares — while she gives proof of hers. 
Your love has made my lips the duct through which 
The stream has flowed. Now dare you wed her as 
You kissed? Her soul is so much like the rock 
It dares. Dare yours? Or do vou fear to trust 
Her word? 

D. Marry by proxy ! Can tlie thing 
Be done with all our fussy laws? • 

D. L. It can ; 

And she will hold to it and think you brave. 

D. Tell me the way and I will find the will. * 

D. L. Use her true name with yours and I will 
play 
The bride, clad in her dress and veil ; and when 
Your fates are one she scarce will give you time 
To sigh ere you shall x)ress her hand and lips 
And call her yours. 

D. I vow, but she is more 

And more to me. But is your size so near 



To hers that you could personate her to ^ 

The wearing of her dress ? 

D. L. As to the bust, 

Mine might be hers. 

D. Oh queenly fullness for 

A woman's form ! And length ? 

D. L. So near 

You scarce would note a fault. 

D. Suberb ! Is she 

Prepared to set the day ? 

D. L. She says that you 

May choose the day. 

D. Then why delay when that 

Bui chafes the heart ? How will to-marrow suit ? 

D. L. Kight]]well if that be what you choose. 

D. • It is. 

D. L. Then ere the day be gone your eyes and 
lil)s 
Shall meet, and you shall greet her as your wife. 
But ere that comes I want to do one more 
Great deed. 

D. Wipe out the depot for the boys? 
Yes, let the vultures have their gizzards warmed. 
I wish a red-hot shot were in their hearts. 

D. L. This night my eyes shall watch the perch 
and warm 
Them all they want. The next good news that 

comes 
To you shall have two wings. 

D. Yes, love and fire ; 



87 
And both alike make hotter still my heart. 

Scene — In the Detective's Lodgings. 

Detective. I vow, but nature has outdone herself 
In making you a manly man with all 
Of woman's lovely qualities. It must 
Be that she takes an evoluting step 
In you, combining what is best in both. 
You simulate the sex amazingly. 
I might have wished you were a woman but 
I recollect your word that she is not 
Inferior to her representative. 

D. L. You soon shall have a chance to judge. 

D. I'd risk 

A thousand justices detecting you. 
Here comes the justice. I will have my friends 
Come in. {Enter justice followed hy two others^ 
lohen the marriage ceremony is performed.) 

D. (In a whisper.) Is she at hand? 

D. L. Yes, when 

These leave. [Exeunt justice and others. Bell rings 
at the front door.) 

D. That must be her. 

D. L. Your wife is here. 

D. Oh, fortunate ! You introduce her. But 
There needs no ceremony in a case 
Like this. 

D. L. Then none there shall be, for my name, 
Which was Lille Slave, is now Lille Swab. Then 
see 



88 

Your wife in me. Yes, look ; I am your wife. 

{Laughing.) 

D. What ! you a woman ? You Joblinsky ! You 
Lille Slave ? Are you in earnest now ? Tell me. 

D. L. You so will find ; and may I give you joy ! 

D. Blessed deception ! and more blest to be 
Thus undeceived. Your words prove true, and more 
Than true, in every syllable. I looked 
For ruby and a diamond meets my eye. 
Now there is double sweetness in your kiss. 

{Kisses her.) 
{A knock at the room door. A man enters.) 

Detective Ellinwood. John Swab ? 

D. The same. 

E. My name is Ellinwood. I called — 
Ah ! there's the very article I want, 

Though in a somewhat curious looking wrapper. 
You will come with me Joblinsky. 

D. That is 
My wife. 

E. Perhaps. But don't you think it just 
A trifle ticklish for a man to let 

His wife be out at night playing with fire 
About a railroad depot ? Come along ; 
We understand the wife arrangement. 

D. What— 
What do you mean? 

E. I mean that something mean 
Was tried last night by one Joblinsky, and 
Your loife knows what it was. But come along. 



89 

D. Shew your authority for her arrest. 

E. For hers or his I have too much for health. 
The why and wherefore will reveal itself 

As soon as pleasant to the one concerned. 
If you can take advice, I say, keep cool. 

D. I do protest against — 

E. I don't deny 
The privilege. Go on protesting. But 
We have to go another way. 

D. By all that's human I Do you mean to hand- 
cuff her? 

E. A bracelet; that is all. 

D. I swear, it is 
Outrageous, fiendish, hellish, damnable ! 

E. Why not 
A woman wear the ornament she earns? 

D. L. Keep heart. My heart at least will be 
with 3^ou this night. 

D. O Liberty ! O Justice ! are 

Your bones about the kennels of the tyrant ? ( To 

ElUnioood.) 
A moment and I'll go with you. 

E. Come at 
Your leisure; we may want you yet. {Exeunt.) 

D. Oh me ! 

Oh me ! oh me ! A married man without 
A wife. My heart's one jewel seen then snatched 
Away while I was gloating o'er my prize. 
The cup of matrimonial bliss against 
My lips then broken ere I taste. My life's 



90 

Trimmed wick ablaze and then blown, out. My sun 

Eclipsed at the horizon's verge. Oh the 

Keen stinging of a venomed tongue, to hear 

The fellow call my wife Joblinsky ! Yes, 

My wife — my wife ! Why, what am I about ? 

The fool I am to let her go and I 

Stay here. My wife in handcuffs ! Kather let 

My soul hav-e handcuffs on it and he haled 

To death in dark and loathsome dungeon. Then 

To have him call my wife an article ! 

I wish I'd brought the claret from his nose 

For that. Well, anyway, I'll follow her 

And die in slow conjugal martyrdom. 

But whitherto? What station-house ? lam 

Perplexed — perplexed. By Jupiter ! affairs 

Have got a most reversionary dast. 

The moneron represents my State. One hour 

The highest type of manhood's bliss is mine ; 

The next, inglorious proneness in the slime 

Of a primordial woe. — The wretch, the fiend ! 

I wonder what was couched at back of that 

Enigma, "We may want you yet." No doubt 

It is a cloud that shadows forth a storm. 

May want you — you — you ; meaning me. I'll arm 

Myself and make them pay for what they get. 

I'll get two good revolvers, trusty friends — 

Friends that will do my bidding — and a dirk, 

Then die amid the trophies of revenge. — 

May want you yet. The Parthian import of 

That backward shot has struck a vital part ; 



91 

Nor can I draw the arrow out. There is 

A density of meaning there that is 

Too much for me. (A knock.) Oh that I had my 

arms ! 
Who's there ? 

A Voice. Bob Snag. 

D. Come in. (Enters.) You startled me. 

Strange feelings visit men at times and, like 
A swarm of vultures on a carcass, tear 
Their heart as common carrion, and are hard 
To drive away. I was engaged in such 
A task when — knock, I heard you at the door. 

B. S. No wonder. That's a warning sign to bid' 
You watch the nor'west corner of affairs 
For squalls. I've come to say that hell's cut loose 
Our stays, and things are getting tangled up. 
And we may all get beached, or something worse. 
I heard a stranger whispering on the dock 
About a dwarf who had some pantaloons 
For sale the day that Boyle was killed. He had 
A mousing look, enough to give a chap 
The cholera. And sure enough it made 
Me sick ; and so I dropped my work to let 
You know. And now, if I know anything, 
The thing for you to do is just to'cast 
Your shadow somewhere west of here or else 
In Canada. But if they should come up 
With you, don't squeal. You see, I've done the best 
I can for you and hope you'll turn up trumps. 

(The Detective groans.) 



92 

What! waterlogged like that? Come, man your 

pumps 
And lufF and you'll come out all right. But hard 
Your helm at once. 

D. Thanks Bill. I want to be 

Alone to lay my plans. 

B. S. Good-by then. Best 

Of luck. {Exit. A long pause.) 

D. That strands me quite. Henceforth I must 
Be battered b}^ the billows of misfortune. 
Those liquid sharks will gnaw *me, plank by plank, 
Till not a vestige of the hulk remains. 
•Luck was it that he said — the best of luck? 
The best of luck is his whose death was an 
Eternity before his birth. Death — life. 
They are the ventricles of Nature'^ heart. 
Which keep the venous and arterial blood 
In ebb and flow of rushing consciousness. 
But who shall give us tlieir anatomy ? 
Who tell us all the myster}^ of their tides ? 
Is every life a tide-rush through her heart. 
To be repeated in another life. 
And each evolving towards a higher mark ? 
I am dumbfounded and agnosticised 
In presence of such problems. But enough. 
To live is but to be a fool. To die is — well, 
No worse. And yet there is a clamminess 
About this thought of death that fidgets one. — 
Was that a knock ? No. Only a coal-cart. 
What can I hope ? Despair ! hold thou my fate. 



93 

No, that were hardly worthy of myself. 

I'll flee to Canada and leave them in 

The lurch. And yet, who knows how near they 

are ? 
They may be coming up the street. But if 
I went to Canada, what then ? Must I 
Leave all behind. Save what I fain would leave ; 
Live like a felon in a chosen cell. 
Startled at every step about the door ; 
Yearning to know, and yet afraid to hear. 
Of things behind ? That could but be the dregs 
Of life — a prolongation of the pangs 
Of death, whose torment every year would still 
Increase. But who knows where the tyrants are? 
Oh, that I had my arms to meet the worst ! 
Then would I rid the world of one of them. 
Enough; I have the matter in my hands. 
By this I cheat them if I cannot kill. ( Taking a 

vial from a draii^er.) 
Here's everything between a thumb and finger. 

{Holding up the vial.) 
There are two worlds — one on each side of it. 
inside is death ; outside is life — here time, 
Which makes me what I am, and there 
Eternity, which makes me what I was 
Before I was. I am the god of Fate 
And hold his keys as master of myself. 
I will defy them to their worst and leave 
Them but a shell. So shall they see that I 
Was much too great for them, and brave as great. 



94 

{The front door hell rings.) By Jupiter ! I wonder 

whether that be them. 
{He drinks.) That settles it. Now let them come. 
( A pause. ) Not them ? I was precipitate. I might 
Have waited and consulted further with 
Myself.- But it is done and cannot be 
Undone. Oh me ! oh me ! I was too rash. 
I wonder whether it is still too late 
To get assistance. No, that scarce would do. 
It may be I shall come out right. Indeed, 
I feel as though a sleep would pull me through. 
It will refresh me and compose my nerves. 

{He sleeps and dies.) 

{ScE:^E—T7ie same. Detective Trip at the door.) 

Trip. (To landlord.) Is this Swab's room ? 

Landlord. ( Whispering.) Yes, he was married 
there 
An hour ago and got his honeymoon 
Eclipsed without the first forewarning from 
The almanac — went out like spitting on 
A^ spark. Detective took her off and had 
The wristlets on her. Something's up. 

T. There may 

Be more than. one thing up. Swab, I suppose. 
Went with her? 

L. No, I reckon not. I heard 

Him in his room a little while ago. ( Trip looks 
through the keyhole.) 



95 

T. There's some one lying there upon the lounge. 

( They knock loudly.) 

L. That must be him. 

T. He remains there still. 

Have you a chair at hand ? 

(Looks through the transom.) 
There's something strange 
About his looks; he might be dead. 

L. Here, I've 

A key. (They enter.) 

T. Yes sir ; dead enough, dead enough. He'll tell 
No tales. That puts the brakes on us. 

Slim Sam. {Steiyjping up hehind.) Why, is 
The detective dead ? 

T. Why do you call him 

The detective ? 

S. S. Why — well, it is a name 
We had for him; that's all. 

T. Names, sometimes, are 

Geographies of men, and indicate 
Their latitude and longitude, and tell 
The climate, soil, productions. Sometimes they 
Are histories in themselves, which, rightly read. 
Would tell us things we have most need to know. 
Why man ! what makes you look so bad — as though 
You'd lived a month on cucumbers and krout. 

S. S. I'm not a-feeling well. I reckon it's 
Through finding of him dead has done it. 

T. Ah! 

You seem to take great interest in his case. 



96 

A longshoreman ain't you ? 

S. S. Well, yes. 

T. I guess the shakes are coming on you. Hold 
Your bones together lest they scatter and 
We have to pick you up in pieces. Say, 
Did you ever see this Swab about the 
Levees ? What ! bad as that ? Well, the landlord's 
Sent to get the coroner, and he can look 
On two of you at once. You take the thing 
To heart uncommonly. I guess you know 
So much it makes your stomach trouble you. 
What ! worse and worse ? Well now, see here — I 

was 
But chaflfing you. But serious now. What do 
You know about this Swab ? 

S. S. A sight too much, 

I swear. But I must go. 

T. Don't hurry. Did 

You see him any time the day that Boyle 
Was killed? 

S. S. I have to go. 

T. See here now. Tell 

Me what you know about the Boyle affair 
And I will make it worth your while. Come now. 
There's cash behind this thing and it is bound 
To come. 

S. S. You can't prove anything by me. {Exit.) 

T. There seems to be the scent of something 
there. (Aside.) 



97 

Scene — On the Street and in the Hall. 

Lew Lurk. What think you of this Norton? 

Black Joe. He is smart — 

Sharp as red pepper. Seems to know the lie 

of things and what we need. 
Yes, smart e^zough. 

L. And all the worse for that if we don't get* 
The good of it. 

B. J. He starts off like a brick. 

L. Of course ; I don't say but he does. And who 
Would not, as strumpets rouge their faces, have 
His frontispiece look fair, to gain his ends. 
When there is rottenness and death behind ? 

B. J. His ends? Why, what do you suspect 
him of? ft 

L. Oh. ! That's too much to say. I don't suspect 
Him in the least. My finger could not touch 
An overt act of wrong. I could not give 
A name to anything that seems amiss 
More than I can tell you what a bad smell 
Looks like. The things that smell are those that men 
Conceal. The graveyard motives buried in 
The breast, which have the scent of death — we see 
Not these ; and oft we only know the place 
Of their interment by the flowers above 
Them. Yet, in Norton's case, I but suggest 
The possible, ij^he should be a black 
Sheep, all the worse for being smart. 

B. J. And all , 

The better if he aint. 



98 

L. Yes, if. 

B. J. Well, now, 

What's up that you are smelling after him 
This way ? I'd like to know and watch the cub 
If anything is wrong. 

L. Nothing, I say, 

That's nameable ; but — well, you know it pays 
To kee]3 an eye on the barometer ; 
Especially when fellows with their pile 
Have taify talk for working men like us. 

B- J. The sweetest taffy in a case like this 
Is unadulterated truth ; and he 
Let*out a heap of it. 

L. Exactly so. 

Does it not take a coating of the truth 
To fit an error for the palate ? Who 
Would take a pill if he must suck it down ? 
Recall the way he hemmed and hawed about 
Obeying law ; about forbearance towards 
The rich, and such like stuff. Of course, he said 
The laws are wrong, the rich are knaves, and all 
The rest. Then why not put the rich astride 
The law and blow them both to smithereens ? 
That looked too tarnal like a snake's tail to 
Be laughed about. The other end may not 
Afford the safest sport. {Boh Snag coming up.) 

Bob Snag. Going to the 

Hall, eh? 

L. Yes, #oe and I are on the way. 



99 

B. S. Well Lew, I've made a quid of what you 
said 
To me the other night and think you're less 
Than fifty yards of right. But I'd not thought 
Of it enough to ask a countersign. 

L. Now, Bob, you watch his words — especially 
The ones that hitch in coming out, for which 
The half inclines to make apology. 

Dig down into their undermeaning and 
You'll find a rat. Now make a note of this: 
He wont ask fellows such as you and I 
To hold an office ; not a bit of it. 

B. S. I have no hankering after one. 

L. No more 

Have I. But there's a principle at stake 
In this — a vital principle, and one 
We need to guard. We are a Brotherhood 
Of working men, while he has capital 
And cannot be in sympathy with us. 
I know that I could fill the office that 
He holds, and better represent our class. 
Not, as I said, that I am wanting it. 
I only say that h'e is not the man ; 
And men like you and I will have no show. 
Except to pay the fiddler while he plays. 
Just think of organizing to protect 
The working man, and making Capital 
Our president! 

B. S. I hadn't thought of that. 

L. The outside of a thing is all that most 



100 

Men see. But schemers keep a lock and key 
Upon their real selves ; and only through 
The keyhole of their cunning speech can we 
Look in and sae them as they are. But here's 
The hall. I ^uess we'll have a crowd to-night. 

{They enter. After preliminaries Norton ad- 
dresses the Brotherhood.) 

Norton. My brothers ! I invite attention to 
My former theme. Lend me your judgment and 
Your confidence. Let prejudice be still 
And reason rule. So shalL we find the truth. 
Already I have partly pointed out 
The inequalities in power possessed 
By rich and poor, which leave the latter an 
Unequal chance to rise. I hold, that He 
Who made us wisely gave diversity 
Of genius, that its aggregate might meet 
The wants^f all and all their wants. In one, 
We see Imagination wave her wand. 
When myriad phantasies have concrete form. 
Another notes the germed utilities 
In nature's seed and bids the lobes expand. 
Another puts his hand upon a crank 
And guides the forces others first evoked. 
And still another has the thewey force. 
That executes the plans his fellow thought. 
Thus each has aptitudes that, unrestrained, 
Will gravitate to their appropriate sphere. 
The heresy of our economy 
Has classified this genius as the high 



101 

And low, and says, that equal faithfulness 

Must have unequal pay. If classify 

We must, count first the first in ministry 

To human wants— such ministry as will 

Be needed while the race endures. But break 

The cordon-codes whose selfishness engirds 

The few and leaves the rest to poverty. 

Crown genius in the genius of the age, 

Whose reach is toward equality. ' 

Allowing for preparatory toil 

And other cost, gauge pay by quantity 

And quality of work, not kind. It slaps 

Our Beason in the face to say, that what 

Is healthy leisure merits more reward 

Than what benumbs the body with its wear. 

Thus far I have your heads and hearts. Now come, 

And I will trace this principle as it 

Concerns ourselves upon another side. 

The welfare of society demands 

That all shall have an ample chance to rise. 

And this is man's inalienable right. 

No calling needful to our wants can we 

Afford to relegate to poverty. 

To grangrene on the body corporate. 

Much less must we degrade whom most we need. 

Your judgment will assent as 'twixt yourselves 

And those above you. Now apply the square 

The other way. And first, I want to ask. 

How many want to farm ? 

Several voices. Why none. 



102 

N. And wliy ? 

A voice. Big work and little pay. 

N. You hit the mark. 

Now make, a note. The farmers constitute 
Two-thirds the toiling class ; and hence two-thirds 
The toilers have big work and little pay — 
Such work and pay that you would shrink from it. 
Yet what more honorable work than theirs. 
Since necessary as the air we breathe ? 
The palmiest days of old saw statesmen at 
The plow ; and it would honor them no less 
To-day, in spite of dudish dignity, 
Which dreads the touch of common dirt. Then let 
Us not imprint on it a brand of shame. 
The pampered brand all toil, and we protest. 
Shall we brand part, and not that part protest ? 
What! scrimp two-thirds, whose toil is hard as ours, 
Then suuId them on the ground that they are scrimped? 
We could not burn a deeper brand into 
The brow of toil. Better we hang ourselves 
Than sink 'neath such a load of infamy ! — 
Now when I speak of equal rights I want 
My words to have the largest latitude ; — 
Not only equal rights for You and I 
With those above, but those below with you 
And I. Not only have the rich no right 
To an unequal share of what belongs 
To all, ourselves have no more right. Yet here 
Two-thirds the toilers are so poorly paid 
That we would call it a calamity 



103 

To share their lot. Thus do we own their lot, 

Compared with ours, to be calamitous. 

The voice of justice is against us here, 

This equal work deserves an equal pay. 

Then here's the sore where first to smear our salve 

And do the justice that ourselves demand. 

Here is the beck of opportunity 

To give political economy 

A trend towards justice, and to prove ourselves 

Magnanimous. So may we arm our claims 

On others with effectual power. And here 

The difference shews between the giving and 

The taking of a dose. But let us face 

The remedy we recommend. Now ask 

The possible. The farmer sells upon 

The basis of a foreign T)rice, and thus 

Competes with foreign underpay, our arm 

Too short to help on foreign soil. Help must 

Be here at home, if help there be. Drive home 

And clinch that fact. Note next, — he buys two-thirds 

Of what we make, hence pays two-thirds of what 

We get. As we environ those who sell 

Against competitive assault we give 

Extortion opportunity to squeeze — 

An opportunity 'tis neither dull 

To see nor slow to seize. Two-thirds of this 

He bears, and we ourselves the rest. A part 

Of this we take in what we get o'er what 

We give for equal toil. Then as for us — 

If justice guide our course — we must ourselves 



104 

Demand less i)ay or give him more ; like him, 

Compete with all the world, or he, with us, 

Be walled against the world. Aught less than this 

Is inequality, and so unjust. 

How then shall we begin to equalize ? 

By raising at the bottom as we may 

And lowering at the top. But little 'tis 

That we can raise. Then climb the apex and 

Begin to dock. And here 'tis pertinent 

To catechise. Has this class special needs 

That claim three dollars to the other one. 

To house, feed, clothe, and educate itself? 

If not, why treble pay for equal work ? 

Or double pay for what exhausts no more ? 

Or greater pay for less amount of toil ? 

Society has common needs, which ask 

That they who wallow in the mire shall be 

UiDraised, to help where now they hinder all. 

These needs are overlooked while we maintain 

Mechanic aristocracy, and in 

The trades have titular disparity. 

From tailor knights to shears-armed baronets, 

From brakeman earls to ducal engineers ; 

Whose pay is as their rank, while others do 

The equal work and get the lesser wage 

Of serfs. The favored ones are castled in 

Their priveleges, walled and moated round 

With prohibitions, while themselves would guard 

The bridge to keep intruders out. Is this 

Equality? Is this fair play ? With such 



105 

Anomolies how can we better things? ( Mui'rners.) 

Yes yes. I know 'tis easier cutting out 

Our neighbor's cancer than our own. But right 

Is right whoever has to wince. It is 

The truth that gives the knife its edge. 'Tis clear 

The welfare of the great two-thirds deserves^ — 

As it demands — our thought ; and for its sake 

And ours it must not be denied. Then view 

This subject on the broadest plain. If we 

Demur to dock the highest wage, what say 

We that the lowest foots two- thirds the bill ? 

Can that be right ? By no arithmetic 

Can it be figured as equalit}^ 

At times we think our highest duty is 

To strike for greater, pay and fewer hours — 

Which is equivalent to greater pay — 

And thus draw further on their pocketbook. 

If that be right, then I am blind to right. 

The operations of the laws of trade 

Admonish us. We need hydraulic force 

To keep it up ; because our level is 

Above surrounding surfaces. We thus 

Exhaust ourselves — and shall, till nature has 

Its way; for wrong will prove re-active and 

Retaliate in pay or penalty. 

We have refused the pay, and get some small 

Installments of the penalty; nor will 

She fail to take the final cent. How this 

Has been, and how it will be if we still 

Persist, there needs no second-sight to see. 



106 

Discriminations favoring lordish trades 
Attract the injured to the barbecue, 
Of whom so many have already come 
That they have left us little but the bones. 
Nor will this cease until the wrong shall cease. 

(2fiir7ners.) 
Murmer we may ; yet, know ye all, it is 
Not me is murmered at, but fate. Persist 
We may, but it will end as if one should 
Present his nose to split a- thunderbolt. 
Our immigrants send down the murcury 
In our thermometer and indicate 
That we shall find it cold enough, ere long, 
To freeze us into X3roverty, and drive. 
Perhaps, to anarchy, which is mad death. 
This or a levelling in wage is our 
Alternative. Thus much as 'twixt ourselves. 
Next bring the screw on our extortioners — 
To whose magnetic fingers sticks so large 
A part of what they touch — by opening wide 
Our gates of commerce to the world. Shut up 
Within ourselves we live upon ourselves 
And find the diet weak. And futhermore. Prevent 
The man whose pocketbook proclaims that he 
Has now beyond his dues, depleting us 
Still further, by manipulation of 
The product of a thousand hands, to build 
Himself a yellow monument and leave 
To us the curse of his impoverishing. 
In short, give equal opportunity 



107 

To all, in any calling, to ascend, 
By industry, and that alone, the steps 
That lead to competence. Again I say ; 
Eqxialitij in opportunity^ 
And opportunity within the hounds 
J^f right. 

Ed. Pratt, Secretary. Now, through the kind- 
ness of your friend. 
The President, our members who were in 
The recent strikes may come to me and draw 
Ten dollars each. For though he disapproves 
Of strikes, the strikers have his sympathy. 

Scene. — On the Street. 

Lew Lurk. What think you now of Mr. President ? 
Our noble President? 

Bob Snag. There is enough 

Of sense to color what he says and make 
It look all fair. And yet — 

Lurk. Yes, I should say 

And yet; and fifty yets before I gave 
Consent to wittle wages down as he 
Proposed. The boys won't swallow that. Once let 
Him get that eeFs tail through his hole and soon 
The head will follow ; bet your last red cent 
On that. I tell you, he has too much craft 
For us to trust his speech. It pays to watch 
The man who smiles so unctiously, and while 
He slobbers over us so feelingly. 
Is only feeling for our pocketbook. 



108 

Black Joe. He shelled the dollars out, which 
hardly looks 
Like craft or selfishness. 

L. No fool could play 

So smart a game ; nor would a honest man. 
Nature is nature, and she shews herself , 

The same at all times. Now, no man invests 
Without expecting an increased return. 
Hence, when jou find one over-liberal, 'tis 
But Arab hospitality which gives 
To gain. His prodigality plays blab 
On him. Free bait to-day; to-morrow, hook 
And line. Who knows where all this money comes 
From ? Grant that he is not without his pile, 
He would not use his own in such a way. 
I wouldn't want to swear that he is not 
The lickspit of the tyrants who would grind 
Our noses off and kick us then because 
We had no nose. 

B. J. Do you suppose he is ? 

Could I think so, I'd want to bring him up 
As sudden as the snapper of a whip 
And make him crack a warning to the rest. 

L. Do you suppose that half of him could be 
So smart and what remains a fool ? Trust him 
For knowing what a dollar's made for. He 
Imagines we are fools. Perhaps we are ; 
But count me out sir, if you please. You can't 
Blind Lew by throwing dollars round like dirt. 
I've seen such tricks before to-day. 



109 

B. S. You see 

Beyond your nose ; and that is" more than most 
Of us can say. We've been such tarnal fools 
They just know how to work us. 

L. You are right 

They do. And they can always find some tool 
That has a swivel-tongue, to talk all ways « 
And use soft sawder, and to rosin us 
AYith X's that will make it stick. And then 
How good we are ! So good that he could gulp us 

down, 
Like oysters off the shell, and smack his lips. 
But I for one don't relish being gulped. 
Nor — gulled. How tenderly he touched on strikes, 
Stepping with soft palaver round the theme, 
As when a cat is creeping towards a bird ! 
But no palaver when he touched our pay. 
Then he could rake us fore and aft and clear 
The deck. And why ? He let his heart loose then ; 
That's why. Now what's the English of it all ? 
Just this : don't blame the bosses, but yourselves, 
For poverty. Its a confounded lie — 
An everlastingly confounded lie ! 

B. S. By thunder! but you've knocked the 
faucet out 
Of him. We'll have to fix his pie. 

L. I knew 

You'd come out right when once you saw the point. 
Of course, you judged him by yourselves and gave 
Him credit for a good intent. But that 



110 

Don't do in such a crooked world as this. 

I tell you, there are lots of men would grind 

Their fellows into sausage-meat and sell 

Them by the pound ; and so, when that's the game, 

I try to find a trump. What say you to 

A meeting in my shop to-morrow night. 

To talk of things and lay our plans ? 

B. S. A good 

Idea that ; I'm in with all my heart and soul. 

B. T. My shadow won't be far off when you 
. meet ; 
For my name aint Joe Shijk. 

L. That's true of both 

Of you. Well, good-night boys. (Exit Litrk.) 

B. J. Its lucky th9 

Detective died the time he did. That let's 
Us out. 

B. S. As slick as if we'd greased the thing. 
I guess we'll have to bake this fellow's beans ; 
But in a dish that won't be apt to leak. 
Lurk, may-be, has a plan.' 

B. J. Suppose we get 

Big Bill again to take a hand. 

B. S. All right ; 

Bill's always sweet on such a job as this. {Exeunt.) 

Scene — In Lurli's Workshop. 

Lurk. Good deeds need no apology ; and none 
Are better than to put a nightcap on 
A traitor that will put him fast asleep. 



Ill 

And where is traitor viler than the wretch 

Who comes with crafty speech to counterfeit 

A friendship that is but a mask for deeds 

That stab our interests in a vital spot ? 

This craft needs answering with a quietus. 

Such men are dangerous in proportion to 

Their skill in hiding their designs. And such 

Is his, that even you were fooled by him 

Until I pricked the bladder, letting out 

The wind of his pretence. You know as well 

As I do that it isn't every fool 

Can take you by the nose and bridle you. 

But he did. Then consider what success 

He must be having with the rest, who sat 

With open mouth and took, like public sewers. 

Whatever he gave. My blood half freezes at 

The thought, and all my feelings rouse to strike 

In my defence and yours ; for every man 

Who earns his daily bread has here his life 

At stake. His very life, I say ; for he 

Who takes our bread takes life; and he deserves 

To forfeit what he aims to take. 

Big Bill. That's so. 

L. Well, are you ready for a quiet job 
That takes a grain of grit? 

Bob Snag. A dozen grains 

Are waiting for the word. Grit is the stuff 
That makes the bones of men like us. We are 
No chic ken -livered cubs when treason shakes 
Its red rag in our face. You beat the brush 



112 

And we'll bring down the game. 

Black Joe. Yes, you've thought out 

The thing. Set up your tenpins and we'll knock 
'Em down. There's satisfaction in a game 
Like this — to slap the gay mosquito while 
He sings. 

B. B. That's so. 

L. Three things are needed. First, 
Know where, to find him at a certain time ; 
Next, how to fix him that the job will stay ; 
Then take our places and perform our parts. 

B. S. You see the x^oints. Now tell the- moves 
to make 
And see who checkmates then. 

L. When next we meet 

Will be the time to strike ; and he must be 
Alone. When meeting closes, you get out 
And double-quick it to the alley near 
To Milligan's saloon and pick your spot. 
I'll manage to secure his company, 
And then accompany him within a block 
Of where you are and leave him to proceed 
Alone. You know him by his ulster and 
His hurried gait. Now see how this will work : 
When something happens him I won't be there. 
And you, since members of the order, will 
Be innocent as pumpkin pie and play 
The crocodile. Besides, the boys will all 
Have seen you at the meeting, making you 
Secure 'gainst spectacled suspicion as 



113 

A dead dog is against the whooping cough. 
Well that's the plan : so when he comes along, 
Of course you'll make the most you can of luck. 

B. S. You turn him loose and leave the rest to us, 
AVe'll cure his corns that they will twinge no more. 
Then let him try his scurvy tricks on us. (The latch 
lifts.) 

L. Sh — ^! I wonder who that is. Come in. 
(Miter Sliiyi Sam.) 

Slim S*A3i. Hello! a little squad. I thought from 
what 
Your wife said you might be alone at work. 

JL. I was until the boys came dropping in 
Like you. I have a little job to do 
On time. What's the good word ? 

S. S. The best I know 

Is what we got last night. 

L. So that you think 

Was good ? 

S. S. I thought it sounded more like sense 
Than anything I've heard this many a day. 
A cabbage heart grow tender — like fall rains. 
Yes, Norton's good as ice in summer — good 
To cool one's soul. Most Xtra Xcellent! 
I guess we'll have him canonized Saint X. 
Scene — In Norton'' s ijriv ate room. 

Gillespie. I fear those murmers were the mut- 
terings of 
A storm. 

Norton. Then let it come, if come it must. 



114 

And clear the atmosphere. 

G. They see us through 

A mist and fear to follow where we lead, 
As though our steps were o'er a quivering bog. 

N. This is the crisis in the battle when 
To falter were to fail. Better at such 
A time the followers than the leaders fear. 
Courage is always mightiest at the front. 
We look for stragglers in the rear. 

G. • I fear 

That most are much too far behind to feel 
The forward impetus. 

N. By so much are 

We more than hangers-on. Progress demands 
High courage, both in leader and the led. 
He penetrates the denser mists with his 
Prophetic eye, and through their swathing folds 
Perceives the landscape's mantled ghost, with here 
A meadow, there a mountain, in a dim 
Immensity ; and so he travels on. 
It is not his to ask how manj^ form 
The rear, nor to turn round to see how long 
His shadow is. Nor is it theirs to ask 
How far he his before ; but, dare they trust 
The casting of his eye ; and if tliey dare. 
Then forAvard! march. 

G. An ideal argument. 

But neither see they, trust, nor seem inclined 
To march. They underestimate your worth 
And work. And so their ears are down to balk 



115 

If not to kick. 

N. The wise are brave ; and brave 

Men dare the underestimation of 
Their fellows, knowing well that Time attends 
On Justice and assigns to every man 
His level at the last ; and better to 
Be leveled up than down. Of course, men curse 
The prophet ere they build his monument. 
But let them curse; the monument will come. 
Thousands have braved a thousand times as much 
As we to win an epaulet. Then we 
Can scarce aiford to quail before a crowd 
That may to-morrow shoulder us about — 
We who may have our honors high emblazed 
Among the 'scutcheons in the halls of time, 
Our names made hallowed by the lapse of years. 

G. We can't aiford to venture much for Fame. 
She has a most uncertain capital, 
Which brings us but starvation dividends. 

N. ' A fillip for your fame. Yet x confess 
That I would merit fame. And should I more, 
I ask for Fame's attest to faithfulness. 
Young Hotblood courts her at the cannon's mouth, 
And, if she smiles, gives half his limbs and counts 
The bargain cheap. Shall we dare less who strive 
For more ? the broad horizon of whose aims 
Is in infinity. Great motives ought to have 
The stronger grasp. 

G. As true as law 

And gospel in a quintessence. But we 



116 

Are called to deal with wills — or wonts. Admit, 
The less they will to learn the more they need. 
Still, who shall put the bridle on their will ? 
Let me suggest, that by a shaking uxd 
Of oats, whose noise declares their scantiness. 
We toll them after us. The noise w^ould draw 
From further than a bin of oats. In this 
Way compromise between our conscience and 
Necessity. 

N. The comjDromises that 
Are hostages of cowardice are not 
Begotten of our noblest hours. Yet would I shun 
Antipodal extremes and sacrifice 
Whate'er might merely minister to pride ; 
Whate'er would seem to have a tang of self ; 
Yea, and whate'er is but the drapery of 
The truth. But let the virgin Truth be nude 
I shall not shrink to shield her purity, 
Nor to proclaim her virtues to the world. 

G. Gallant ! But they see not her nudity. 
They see her cast-off clothes and think her there. 

N. I cannot stop to doff my hat each time 
A cricket chirps, nor to explain myself 
To every beggar when I sneeze. The poor 
Old world is sick — by far too sick for us 
To shilly-shally with her case, which needs 
Heroic treatment ; and the doctor, not 
The patient, must prescribe. (And here I need 
No prudish modesty). I think I see 
A remedy, and I prescribe, knowing 



4 






117 

That she will gag before she gulps the dose. 
But her extremity will open yet 
Her mouth and let it go. I may not see ^ 
It done ; and she may e'en forget who left 
The remedy. Such is the frostwork used 
In building up a monument of fame. 
Bright as 'twere solid sunlight, it dissolves. 
And that which glitters most may be the first 
To disappear. So cheap, one line has crowned 
A Pajnie with bays ; so dear, a Sophocles 
Is half forgot. To me it matters not. 
I fill my place in life's great drama and 
Perform the part that Providence assigns. 
I want my record writ in human lives ; 
So shall it live when marble turns to dust. 

G. My sole concern is, how to write it there. 
I lack your bold audacity of faith, 
Which in the darkness firmly plants its foot, 
Expecting solid rock. ' 

N. We can afford 

To dare while backed by the Omnipotent. 
Look through His eyes, rely upon His arm 
And go ahead. 

G. Easy, no doubt, it is 

To one who has the faculty of faith ; 
But my more prying nature wants to see. ' 

N. Then shut your eyes and you shall see the 
more. 
By shutting out the world. 

G. Would we might live 



118 

To shake hands with the coming time, which Faith 
Upon your watch tower sees approaching o'er 
The plain. 

N. I doubt not thousands in the past 
Have longed to see the day we see ; and in 
Our wished for day men still will wish to reach 
An ideal that is ever on the move. 
So will our human finity go on 
To find the suburbs of infinity, 
And spend, perhaps, eternity in quest. 
This is the spur to life's activities. 
In this, humanity is e'er a boy. 
Strutting and stretching to become a man. 
Be this our satisfaction, that we are 
As cogs in the great w^heel that grinds events, 
And let us lubricate our energies. 
When next we meet I mean to close 
The statement of my views; and after that 
We must proceed to spread ourselves abroad 
And sow the country with our principles. 
Scene — In the PiMic Hall. 

Norton. Brothers, I now shall finish my remarks 
Upon the subject of the former nights. 
But first, I wish to touch some pustules that 
Have been unseen, and which, when touched, may 

* make 
Us wince. Now see the inutility 
Of strikes. Tlie}^ make \o\x fight unarmed 'gainst 

those 
In mail. Nay, men of millions quaff their wine 



119 

And make a strike a means of fleecing you 

Still more, while smiling at the impotence 

Whose fists are smiting adamant. But would 

You probe this pustule to its core ? Ask why 

These constant feuds. Is not the gauntlet thrown 

By those who have the highest wage, and so 

The least occasion to complain ? You must 

Confess that this is so. Then why the strikes ? 

Because the bloated wage attracts the crowd 

Till they are threatened by competetors, 

'Gainst whom they raise their 'Hmion" barricades; 

But which employers try -to batter down, 

While hungry thousands try to scramble o'er. 

The level water needs no dam to keep 

A fraction of its surface in. its place. 

No jnore the toilers where a level of 

Equality prevails. There are no strikes 

Amongst the great two-thirds that wants the men 

Whose toes have scraped your heels. Now crack 

that nut 
And find a kernel there. — While I declare 
That I would rather be a Ilea upon 
A dead dog than to live the life of some 
Rich men, I cannot shut ni}^ eyes to facts. 
I see that tyrants are not always rich. 
I see the desperate and despotic means 
Employed by wage-monopolists, to push 
Up wages with discriminating force. 
I see that those who get the ducal pay 
Have dacal longings that destroy content — 



120 

An itching after more than what they need ; 

An envious wish to waste as others waste : 

And hence, as lilliputian millionaires, 

They shew the scurvy of improvidence. {Murmers), 

Nay, do not murmur at the truth. If it 

Has hurt you, take the hint and step aside. 

A thunderbolt hurts only those who cross 

Its path. I fear that most are squandering what 

Might shelter from life's autumn rains ; else why 

So many liquor-dens, where capital 

Is fattening on the poor ? Thousands of these — 

The bloated tyrants, whom the poor support 

In their luxurious laziness — give back 

A curse for all it takes to round their paunch. 

And yet they strut on half the corners of 

The streets. What better were you off should all 

Have double wage and all you got but fill 

Them up with lard ? No no. Not what we get 

Enriches us, but what we do not waste. 

But could we all be rich we all would still 

Be poor ; as elephants were small as mice 

Were mice the size of elephants. E'en now 

You are not poor, save as your eyes turn up. 

Look down and all are rich. — I now proceed 

To sweep the wide horizon of the world. 

In all the scope of mutual human rights. 

And here I scout the mouldy arguments 

Whose logic leans upon the obsolete 

And keeps its dead eye fixed upon the past. 

A living present needs providing for — 



121 

Not with the milk that ^served our infancy, 

But with the meat that manhood masticates. 

Then let us clear our eyes of selfishness 

And look our present problems in the face. 

The man most worthy of the name of man 

Is he whose aim o'ermantles most with its 

Beneficence. Indeed, the sainthood of 

Our nature is the sympathy with man 

Whose ardent outreach clasps its fingers round 

The final volume of his destiny. 

The preface and the introduction of 

The race are written. Now the body of 

The book remains to fill. The way in which 

We write our page will shape the argument. 

The man whose life revolves within himself. 

Sucking, like autumn eddies in the woods. 

The world's dead leaves of lucre to his heart. 

Is but a fly-speck on the present page. 

And nations with this sordid animus 

Are blots. To have a better horoscope, 

We need to view the world with other eyes 

Than did our fathers. We must not regard 

It as a chessboard, and the nations pawns, 

For castles, bishops, knights and queen to move 

Upon, until some Greatgrab checks. Instead, 

They are as parts of one great city, where 

Is a community of interests ; where 

There ought to be no slums, to serve the rich 

As waste-bins, into whicli to cram the poor, 

As garbage from their overloaded store. 



122 

Oceans have shrunk until they are but squares, 

And channels streets, and islands neighbors, which 

Can call and answer from each other's door. 

And each decade will find them nearer still. 

Then view the rights of man as more than ours — 

Their scope as girting all the world ; and deem 

The duties of the nations as of man 

To man. Twixt one or billions right is right. 

You know the rights belonging to your trade ? 

You know the rights belonging to the rest. 

You know the rights belonging to all toil. 

You know the nation's rights. You know the world's. 

Be jealous then for others' rights as yotirs ; 

For the revolving ages unify 

The interests of the whole. Give to the world 

The rights of intercourse, as you yourselves 

Would jostle in the markets of the world. 

Fear not destructive competition. That 

You have. "Protection" guards our capital 

From competition with the world, and so 

The competion is twixt capital . 

And poverty at home ; and capital 

Is king and has you in its gripe. Fling wide 

The nation's doors. Let capital compete fli 

With capital and bring its profits to ^^ 

The common mean. But here you wince 

And tremble for your wage. But if you fear 

Equality, then take not Justice' name 

In vain. Or fear you to compete — your choice 

Is prisoner to necessity. You must. You can 



123 

But choose the spot on which the lever 

Shall be placed — in Europe or at home. 

Shut in your trade and hibernate — the swarms 

Of Europe, driven before the whip of their 

Necessities, will come and share your loaf. 

Think of the great two-thirds that now competes 

With Europe's poorest paid, in spite of sharks 

That are protected in monopoly 

At home, then answer whether you could not 

Compete with those who get the highest wage, 

AVere this protection taken from the sharks. 

But note : A less per cent, of wage is in 

Our wares than those of foreign make. By so 

Much more the purchaser is fleeced by him 

That sells. So capital increases still 

Its bloat. Hence 'tis not wage but greed that gets 

Protection from the foreign price. Thus 'tis. 

Whichever way we turn, we feel our gun's 

Recoil. Our greed is crushing us. The blood 

Alread}'' oozes from our pores — and will. 

Till Reason rules and Justice gets her dues. 

But what is Reason, Tustice what? The rights 

Of man as -man. With us, equality 

In ultimates of wage, and values based 

Upon per cent, of toil. With capital, 

Close competition in the widest field. 

With nations, recognition of the race 

As one. The ideal of political 

Economy is there, and a freed world 

Shall wear that chaplet in the diamond age 



124 

To be ; which will be when we rise to the 
High eminence from which our reason and 
Onr sympathies shall view the world, and see 
Our interests welded in a chain whose links 
Depend upon the whole. And when we trust 
That chain to hold our destinies, we all 
Shall recognize The Human Brotherhood, 
Which God ordained, but man has erst ignored. 

{The audience dis^persincj). 

Lurk. I compliment you, Mr. President, 
For opening out so vast a vista to 
Our view, and thus alluring onward, with 
The prospect of the better time. Our aims, 
As you present them, are the grandest, and 
Well worthy of the most exalted minds. 
Only Columbuses would dare so vast 
An ocean, whose far continent mankind 
Have been too dull to dream of, as they still 
Dream on unconscious of the wakeful world. 
But, some day, they will rub their eyes to learn 
That we have found a world. 

N. Exactly so. 

The fundamental principles of right, 
Twixt which and modern life an ocean lies. 
Are yet, to most, an unknown continent. 
Even ourselves scarce touch the mainland of 
The rights of man as others will. Nor need 
We till the islands are explored. But we 
Are in the vicinage of vaster things. 
As we demonstrate our discoveries we 



125 

Shall turn the jealousy of some to ire. 

And then alternately be lionized 

And dungeoned for our pains. Time's verdict will 

Be made our epitaph. But what of that — 

Whether the bubble Fame shall glitter in 

Our eye and burst in death, or leave its mark 

In marble on our grave ? The age must move. 

L. Shall I assist you with your overcoat ? 

N. First let us see the visage of the night. 
Why, how dark I It rains a little, and it 
Looks as though it might be raining ink and 
Blotting out the earth. Here, I can spare my 
Ulster, being provided for without it. 
Thanks, I can get along without it. 

N. ^ But not 

So well without as with. Put it on. There, 
The storm will scarce discover where you are. 

L. That's lucky now. I'll go along with you. 

Gillespie. Seeing you have good company I guess 
I'll take the street-car here, so say, good-night. 

N. Good-night. We'll talk away the distance and 
Arouse to find our toes before the fire. ( They start.) 

L. Yery few people on the street. 

N. No blame 

For shirking close acquaintance with a night 
Like this. 'Tis like a dun, whose face is not 
So welcome as his back. 

L. Persistent too. 

Demanding vital energy, and will 
Not be rebuffed. — How long do you suppose 



126 

Before our piinciples so far prevail 
That they will shape society ? 

N. Truth, like 

The dawn, moves not with measurable steps 
That we can count by clock-ticks, but it steals 
Across the tree-tops of men's minds and sinks, 
SufFusively, until the vallies of 
The soul become transiigured in its sheen. 
Only as we compare the present with 
The past can we perceive the progress made. 
So will it be. But that our principles 
Will yet prevail is certain as that day 
Will follow night. 

L. I'd like to linger o'er 

This theme, as lovers on a moonlight night 
Where they can hear their own hearts beat. But we 
Lack moonlight ; so I guess we'll have to part 
As this is m}^ way home. 

N. That makes me think 

Of what I overlooked on coming up 
To meeting. I must call and see a man 
Who lives on ninth. I'm sorry I forgot 
It. But there is a compensation in 
All ills ; and this postpones our parting for 
A block or two. 

L. What a coincidence 

Of blundering ! or shall I simply say, 
Forgetfulness ? I have myself to keep 
Eight on and see a fellow I engaged 
To meet at Strouth's hotel. And I shall have 




127 

To huny too ; so here we have to part. {Exit 
Norton.) 

L. Confound it! What a balk after so good 
A start. But luck, like women, must be wooed. 
Well, I shall have to find the bo^^s and let 
Them scatter to their homes. It hardly pays 
To fish a night like this without a bite. 
But what a pity, when the night seemed made 
For such a job ! This lets him off for once. 
The second time may fail ; but third makes up 
For all. Luck seems to like the number three. — 
The greasy hypocrite ! He's but a wick. 
And all we touch is just the tallow that 
Has stuck to him in dipping. Oh ! 
But how his precious tongue lias been perfumed ! 
H — hem ! how nicely truth, philanthropy, 
And all the other pretty words that take 
With men as fashion-plates with women, drop 
From his sweet lips as from a honeycomb ! 
But I must put some muscle in my step. 
Let's see — they must be somewhere near. {Snag 
and Black Joe come ujy hehind. Big Bill 
at their heels. Lurk turns. 

Hello! {He falls.) 

B. B. By golly boys ! its Lurk as sure as you're 
Alive. It sounded like him when he holloed. 

B. S. Lurk or no Lurk, it's too dark to look for 
Fleas. Legit out of this. {Snag and Black Joe 
run.) 

B. B. I'll satisfy myself. {He stoops and feels 



12$ 

at thefaee.) 
Thunder and lightning ! it ^6- him I swan. 
Lew — Lew. Speak, Lew if it's you. {Policeman 
ai^proaches. Bill runs. Is pursued and 
caught.) 

Say boss, 
Where are you taking me i 

Policeman. Don't be too nice 

About your lodgings when you get them free. 
What have you done ? 

B. B. I don't kn6w what we've done. 

P. We ! More than one was there ? 

B. B. Yes, Bob and Joe. 

P. Bob and Joe who ? 

•B. B. Golly I I don't know as 

I ought to tell. It wasn't me as did 
The job. 

P. Of course not, No one ever has 
When caught. {They pass the corpse.) 

A VOICE. Yes, dead enough ; his head smashed in 
Behind. 

P. So that's what loe have done. Come on 
Before that crowd gets troo^oing after us. -{Exeunt.) 



129 



CHAPTER IV, 



Scene — On a levee and at a police Station, 

Slim Sam. What's up boys ? 

Jim Blake. They've nabbed Bob Snag and Black 
Joe for murder. 

S. S. Murder ! When ? 

J. B. • Soon as they came 

To work. 

S. Sh By thunder ! I must go and see 
About it. 

J. B. See about it ? What can you 
See, eh ? 

S. S. Get my place filled ; that's all. {Exit.) It's no 
Use, I must sit down here. The curse of hell 
Be on the day that I had anything to do 
With it ! It is, and on all days, and on 
Me too — the tarnel fool I was. I might 
Have known that blood will stick and curse and 

curse 
And stick as brimstone burns and blisters. It 
Is burning in my bones. I feel it in 
My very marrow, drying it. My back 
Is weak ; my legs are failing me ; my flesh 
Is shrinking. Just look there. {Pinching his hand.) 



Tt- 



130 

There's just enough — 
And only just — to Iiold m,y bones together. — 
Nabbed — both of them ; and me as good as nabbed. 
And then to think it didn't do a wink 
To help us out, but seemed to help us in. 
The Devil must have got me into this ; 
For I had natural sense enough to know 
That Devil's work brings Devil's pay. But done 
It is, and pay-day's here ; and here I am, 
A half-way murderer — the fool I was. 
I wish that I could tear my carcass 'limb 
From limb and throw it to the quarters of 
The globe and put an end to suclf a fool. — 
I wonder why that peeler looks so much 
This way. He passes on. All right. And yet 
I don't know ; it will have to come. Two nabbed. 
That means me too. The sooner I prepare 
For it the better. As we're in for it 
Things can't be worse ; and life is sweet. I'll squeal 
And save my neck, and that will lighten up 
My lift without increasing theirs ; for they 
Are booked. It makes my heart beat lighter 
As I think of it. Then that's the thing to do. 
■'Twill come the nearest to undoing what 
Is done. But I will have to get the start 
Of them or they may tell some yarn and get 
Me fixed. They're not a bit too good for that. 

(Goes to the police station.) 
I'm that other chap you want. {To a 2'>oliceman.) 

roLicEMAN. What other ? 



131 

S. S. That helped to kill Ben Boyle. 

P. Be careful what 

You say. But come this way with me. 

( Before chief of Police. ) 

Chief of Police. What is your name? 

S. S. Sam Drew; but they call me. 

Slim Sam. 

Ch' of p. And you inform against yourself 
That you were implicated in the crime 
Of murder ? 

S. S. I was there and gave a lift 

To it, but didn't do the killing ; and 
If you'll let up a bit on one I'll tell 
You everything you want to know. 

Ch' of p. What Boyle 

Was this you killed ? and when did it occur ? 

S. S. Ben Boyle. We killed him when the long- 
shore strike 
Was on. 

Ch' of p. That is enough. The officer 
Will have you placed in custody until 
The prosecutor shall arrive, take down 
Your deposition, and investigate 
The facts. Meanwhile, you are our prisoner. 

Scene — In a cell. 
Theophrastus Gripe, Attorney at Law. 
Well sir, without the best of help your chance 
Of life is dear at one bad cent. I would 
Not take your chances for a world — that is. 
Without the very best of help. But I 



132 

Can see a way to bring you through and let 
You snap a fillip in the face of Fate. 
Now how much money can you raise ? 

Bob Snag. I have 

A lot and shanty that I bought when lots 
Were cheap ; and that is all I have. 

T. G. That is 

The lot your family is living on ? 

B. S. Yes. 

T. G. Well, give me a deed of that and I 
Will get you clear. 

B. S. Then that will scoop me out. 

T. G. Sir, you are poised upon a needle's point, 
And Death has got his finger on the strings 
Of life to snap them with a jerk. This is 
No time to halt and haggle o'er a bit 
Of dirt, with which you buy your life. Decide — 
Which is worth most to you, your lot or life ? 
Which would your wife j)refer, a paltry bit 
Of earth or him she called her sweetheart years 
Ago ? And which would pay your children best, 
A father or a dirt-patch for a flock 
Of geese ? You know the worth of life to you 
And them. So here is your alternative — 
A deed, or dangle from a rope and leave 
Your family a murderer's legacy. 

B. S. But can you clear me sure and certain ? 

T. G. Yes, 

As sure as if it were already done ; 
For juries, now-a-days, are riddles, and 



4 



133 

A shake that has enough of dollars at 

Its back would sift the devil through and all 

His imps — that is, when rightly done. 

B. S. Agreed. 

T. G. You say you helped to get away with 
Lurk — 
But by mistake ? 

B. S. Yes, Norton had the spot. 

T. G. You say that Lurk and you were friends ? 

B. S. Yes, chums. 

And he's the very one that planned the thing ; 
And how he came to trap himself is more 
Than I can tell. 

T. G. And your accomplices 

Were Black Joe and Big Bill. Were these the 

friends 
Of Lurk? 

B. S. As good as brothers any day. 

T. G. Now are you certain no one saw you when 
You did the deed ? 

B. S. As certain as I breathe. 

The night w^as wet, and dark enough to snuff 
Out fifty moons ; and there was no one near — 
At least, when I and Black Joe left ; and trust 
Big Bill for dawdling with the Devil at 
His heels. 

T. G. How came they to suspicion you ? 

B. S. They must have seen us going to the hall 
Together. 

T. G. If no more, you only have 



134 

To keep your mouth well corked and all will go 
As smoothly as if we were Providence. 

T. G. Did Big Bill go away with you ? 

B. S. No, he 

Stepped back, suspecting it was Lurk was struck. 
But Bill can care for number one. 

T. G. If he 

Was seen and recognized the clue is there. 
In which case we must make another plea. 
You say Lurk halloed ? 

B. S. He began to as 

We struck him. One blow silenced him as quick 
As if we'd chopped the sound square off; and down 
He fell, kerwollop, like a log of wood. 

T. G. Is Big Bill still at large ? 

B. S. I guess he is. 

Soon as he heard that we were nabbed he'd go 
By shank's express on everlasting time. 

T. G. Il" he was recognized we'll have to watch 
Our cards and keep them covered up. Our plea 
Must be that you were going home, wh^n Big 
Bill, in the rear, heard Lurk and started back, 
But, seeing others coming, ran away. 
To keep himself untainted by suspicion. 
I'll fix the story straight as tightened string, 
And all of you must stick to it 
As to a bob-tail chance of life. 

B. S. No fear. 

T. G. Well now, your deed. You have a copy, I 
Suppose, at home ? 



135 

B. S. Yes, go and see my wife 

And she will find it for yon. 

T. G. That's all right. 

Now keep your hopes upon the topmost shelf, 
And you'll be there as soon as Time can wink. 
ScENE-^/?i Boh Snag^s Shanty. 

Mrs. Snag. What must we do when we have lost 
our home ? 

Theophrastus Gripe. What must you do when 
you're a widow and 
Your children fatherless ? 

Mrs. S. Heaven only knows. 

T. G. It need not be. Your husband's life is at 
Your own command, to forfeit or to save. 
It cannot be you think so man}^ feet 
Of dirt too great a sacrifice to save 
That husband's life. Just think of all the years 
You yet may spend in wedded pleasure for 
A paltry lot. Think how your children, in 
A heartless world like this, have need of such 
A father's care, and say if you would lose 
For them the precious boon, when you can hold it 
At so cheap a rate. The fact is, such 
A lot as yours is scarcely worth the cost 
Of making out a deed. But I would have 
You feel the honest consciousness — the pride 
Of having paid me something for my pains. 
Which are the fruitage of my sympathy. 
I do assure you madam,' that my heart 
Is aching for you in this trying hour. 



136 

To prove myself a friend when friendship is 
Most worth, well knowing that you need a man 
To help you keep the hunger- wolf a vay. 
Hence, why I give you such an easy chance 
To save a husband's and a father's life. 

Mrs. S. Yes, sir. I feel that all our lives are 
wrapt 
In his. His grave would swallow all our hopes. 
But then, you know, I couldn^t help but think 
A mother's thoughts and have a mother's fears. 
And so it came to me this way : suppose 
I thought, we lose our home, we lose our all ; 
And when all's gone, it's all, sir, sure enough ; 
And whether it was much or little aint 
Worth breath enough to tell. It's plain, you know, 
That nothing's nothing anyway. 

T. G. I would 

Not turn you out of house and home for lots 
Like yours enough to make a continent ; 
Of that pou may be sure. 

Mrs. S. Forgive me, sir. 

My question and aRcept my thanks for all 
Your sympathy. I'm sure you're very kind. 

T. G. I always pride myself on being fair 
And square — -as fair as fair can be and square 
Enough to keep affairs iu shape. Well now, 
The deed. 

Mrs. S. Yes sir; {Searching in a trunk.) It's 
here. . 

T. G. Now come with me ; 



137 

Then we will get the matter all arranged, 
And soon your husband shall be home again, 
And all be lovely as the summer days. (Exeunt.) 
Scene. — Big Bill in his cell.- 

Warden. Some fellows are arrested, and they 
say 
That you had part with them in killing one, 
Ben Boyle, about a month ago. 

Bm Bill. What ! have 

They squealed ? 

W. Of course. That's how we come to know. 

B. B. The tarnel cusses that they are ! By Jo ! 
But won't I let 'em see that two can play 
That game ! It's Snag and Black Joe murdered 

Lurk 
And got me hitched with them : only they missed 
Their neighbor's dog and killed their own. And now 
To think they squeal and lie on me ! 

W. See here ; 

That game's played out. Should half the stories told 
Be true, this place would be a dove-cote and 
The birds we get all white as angels' wings. 
It might be fitly called. The saint's abode. 

B. B. But what I say is true — as true as I'm 
A fool ; and I am fool enough to make. 
A dozen fools out of or I'd never 
Have been in with them. Dog on it ; but I 
Do believe that Norton's just a bully 
Boy. Why, he gave us strikers all an X 
A piece ; which aint what every one would do. 



138 

But Lurk, he got his back up like a cat. 
When dogs are round, and nothing else would do 
But Norton must be killed ; and some way, Lurk 
He happened when we looked for Norton, and 
He got the whack that laid him out. That's so, 
As sure as I'm in limbo. And^ou know, 
There ain't a chance of doubting that. 

W. Not much. 

B. B. I guess they didn't tell that they them- 
selves 
Killed Boyle. Slim Sam and me, we took a hand 
i.n cornering him ; but they topped off the job. 
That's so. And now they come and squeal on me 
And Sam to save their necks. There's Sam, he's had 
His belly full of thunder ever since ; 
And so they wouldn't trust him on this job. 
And if I'd had Sam's sense I'd not been here. 
This is the pay I get for playing fool. 
Well, somehow, fools get paid when pay-day comes. 
Scene — Slim Sa?n iu his cell. 

Slim Sam. I swan, but you're the fellow was at 
the 
Detective's lodgings when they found him dead. 

Trip. I guess I am. I learn' you had a hand 
In killing Boyle. 

S. S. No, not in killing him ; 

But I was there. 

"f. Did the detective, as 

You called that hunchback, have a hand in that 
Affair ? 



139 

S. S. The leading hand. He acted as 
Decoy and got Boyle where we wanted him. 

T. Do you know Joblinsky ? 

S. S. By sight ; that's all. 

T. Had he a hand in it ? 

S. S. He may have known 

Of it through the detective. If he did, 
That's all. What makes you ask me? Have they 

nabbed 
Him too? 

T. No, not for that. But this time he 
Turns out to be a she. 

S. S. You don't say that 

Joblinsky is a woman ? 

T. That's just it. 

Russia has a long account to settle 
With her if it could ; but she is booked for 
Devilment enough to settle her right 
Here. Uncle Sam will foot her future bills. 

S. S. Well, that beats me that he should be a 
woman. 
• Scene — Boh Snag in his cell. 

Theophrastus Gripe. It's my ill luck to bring 
unlucky news ; 
Not such as tolls the death-knell of your case, 
Yet such as bids our wits be wide awake. 
Big Bill's arrested, and he has uncorked 
Himself. 

Bob Snag. What, squealed ? 

T. G. Yes, sj)illed out everything. 



140 

B. S. That sends us all to Jericho. 

T. G. No, not 

At all. What kind of fellow is Big Bill ? 

B. S. A great, green, lubbering gawky ; tough as 
A mule, with no more sense. 

T. G. The greener now 

And less of sense the better for our case. 

B. S. Well, he's as green as Biddy's bonnet that 
The old cow ate for cabbage. 

T. G. Lucky that. 

What queer things have you noticed in him that 
Would indicate a feeble mind ? 

B. S. There's scarce 

Enough of feeble mind, or any other mind, 
To find with spectacles ; but, gawky-like. 
When others entertain his ear with talk. 
He has an open, hungry-looking mouth. 
And when their story, like the pointer of 
A clock, has measured off its round, he gulps 
It always with a smack and says, '-That's so." 

T. G. Always. 

B. S. Yes ; if he hadn't got Big Bill 
For nickname we had christened him. That's so. 

T. G. I've got my cue. This answer has become 
A habit ; and the habit, working on 
So weak a mind, becomes a source of strange 
Hallucinations, so that when his nerves * 

Become perturbed by some unusual shock. 
As 'twas in case of his arrest, it is 
By instinct he responds to any charge. 



Ul 

"That's so." Moreover, what he knows of men 
And things is so associated with this 
Habit of assent that he is but 
The parrot of an automatic mind. 
That argument, elaborated with 
Khetoric art, will scoop a jury-box 
And put the jurors in your stocking, like 
So many candy-sticks at christmas-tide, 
Making me Santa-claus. So, after all. 
You see, we've got our grip upon the horns 
Of Luck. Now, inventory, ere I come 
Again, the things you know him to have said 
Or done that have a smack of crankiness, 
And I will turn the crank to good account. 

B, S. I guess you know the kinks. 

T. G. Trust me for that. 

That's 'cuteness sir ; and 'cuteness prods the ribs 
Of law and picks her pocket while she laughs. 
Our province is to tangle witnesses 
Until, when all is o'er, they are themselves 
Amazed to con the evidence they gave, 
And to make jurors give their ears the lie 
And suck our sophistries like sugar plums — 
The thing you need in such a scrape as this. 
Well now, good day. I shall be back within 
A week at most, and, in the meantime, try 
To see Big Bill and make the most of him. {Exit.) 

Warden. What sort of client have you got in there? 
We've got a fellow here who charges him 
With killing some one else — one Boyle. 



142 

T. G. What! Where? 

W. Boyle, a longshoreman, when the strike was 
on. 

T. G. Is that a fact ? 

W. It's fact that he has made 

An affidavit to it as a fact. 

T. G. How does he know ? 

W. He says that he was there, 
PdiTticefs criminis^ but charges Snag 
And one Joe Black as principals. 

T. G. Then I 

Must make inquiries into this. {Returns to the cell.) 

I guess 
You'll think me body-servant to ill-luck. 
But here a warden tells me that they have 
A fellow charging you with killing one 
Named Boyle. What is there to it ? Anything ? 

B. S. By thunder ! too much for a fellow's good. 
Who is it that they've got ? 

T. G. He says that he 

Took part in it. 

B. S. Slim Sam, I'll bet, for he's 

Been belly-aching over it a month 
And more, and wanted thirty hours a day 
To gripe it out. He's just a granny noodle. 
Well, that does the job sure. I may as well 
Give up. 

T. G. Tut tut ! Never give up until 
They swing you up. But don't be scared. Your life 
Is worth a good insurance yet. Tell me 



143 

The worst that I may know what I will have 
To meet. 

B. S. Well, it was in the strike. Big Bill, 
Slim Sam, Black Joe and me, we did the job 
For him ; and he deserved it too — the scab 
He was. 

T. G. And did yoti do the killing? 

B. S. Yes— 

Me and Black Joe. 

T. G. That complicates affairs. 
But let me see. There must be some waj^ out. 

( Walks the floor.) 
Was either of your parents any time 
Insane, or given to freaks of oddity. 
That you can prove ? 

B. S. No, not that I'm aware. 

T. G. Nor yet a grandparent on either side ? 

B. S. I never heard. 

T. G. Nor uncle, aunt or cousin ? 

B. S. My mother had a cousin wasn't as 
She ought to be. 

T. G. Ah ! she — a mental weakness on 

The female side. Heredity will let 
Its secrets out by an unerring law ; 
And all the worse when the parental life 
Is operating, through gestative mouths. 
In giving bias to its fetal ward. 
Now stretch your memory to the twanging point. 
And tell me what you have been told of her 
Receiviu2: some unusual scare or shock, 



144 

While yet your life was hers and sensitive 
To all the fluctuations of her moods. 

B. S. I well remember having heard her say, 
That four months ere my birth, a wolfish dog 
Attacked her, when a passer-by drove off" 
The brute and left her trembling almost at 
The fainting point, from which efi'ect she scarce f 
Recovered for a week. 

T. G. That hook will do 

To hang a jury on. You see, the shock to her 
Mentality at that precarious stage 
In your development, ere yet your traits 
Of mind unalterably were posited, 
Disturbed your mental equipoise and gave. 
Through an unfortunate heredity, 
A timid fear that has developed to 
A constitutional aggressiveness 
Against imaginary foes, and which. 
In its exaggerated caprices, 
Spares not your dearest friends, as, instance, Lurk. 

B. S. What ! would you make me out a lunatic ? 

T. G. An expedient stroke of policy, enough 
To fool a jury with. You can afford 
To be a little crazy for your life. 
Moreover, we can have revenge on him 
Who turned informer, and suggest that he 
Employed you as his tool to do the job 
For him and save his neck from feeling hemp. 

B. S. I guess they'd have to cull a county for 
A dozen fools who could be fooled that way. 



145 

T. G. Of course, 'tis fools we get in such a place, 
The mental hulks 'gainst whose dull brains the tides 
Of knowledge wash and leave them anchored still 
In ignorance. To get such is a fine 
Art practiced in extremity. Pleas of 
Insanity awake their sympathy 
And agitate them like so many ewes ' 
That hear their lambs bleat in the butcher's pen. 
The greater fool the better juryman. 

B. S. That seems to give me but a flimsy chance. 

T. G. Flimsy or not it is a chance ; and in 
A case like this — with talent at one end 
And but an average jury at the other — 
One thread of gossamer mere strong enough 
To pull you through a cambric-needle's eye. 
Then keep good heart. When anyone comes here, 
Look wild. Stare like a dead fish. Threaten him ; 
But don't say anything too sensible. {Exit.) 

B. S. I'm in for it at last. It's no use. No 
One's dunderhead enough to swallow what 
He says. I don't mys#lf half understand 
The mixed-up stuff". Then how can such a set 
Of fools as those he talks about ? Or if 
They be not fools, what use is all this bosh ? 
There's too much fact for anything so thin 
To hide. I may as well play smash and blab 
It all, then trust to luck to save my neck. 
I've heard of men escaping who confess ; 
Then in a a while a maudlin Governor comes 
And pardons in a tender mood. Who knows 



146 

But there may be the shadow of a chance ? 
Scene — In Gripe and Sharp'^s office. 

Theophrastus Gripe. In Snag's case we must 
have the jury hung 
Or he will hang. I wish you'd make it in 
Your way to see the sheriff and suggest 
Some names. There's Blunderbuss, who, like a hog. 
Will go according as they pull his tail ; 
And Flip, who knows whatever others don't 
And proves them fools by doing as they don't ; 
And Sloan, who needs a month to hem and haw 
And then conclude he can't make up his mind ; 
And Kant, who has so soft a heart he would 
Not hurt the snake that killed his neighhor^s child ; 
And Prue, who sees a thousand ghosts of doubt 
And dare not act until the last is laid ; 
And Yeer, who tries to trim his sails to all 
And yields to him who has the gustiest lungs ; 
And Schleiman, of the corner store, who found 
In Snag, no doubt, a steady customer ; 
And Plod, whose fellow-feelfng calculates 
That mercy comes from being merciful ; 
And Reasor, who believes a man insane 
Whene'er he takes away his fellow's life ; 
And Tellman — 

Newsboy. Morning Times. 

T. G. (Reading.) Byjupiter! 

What's this? Bob Snag confessed. (Reads aloud.) 

Last night Bob Snag 
Confessed to having helped to murder Lurk 



147 

And Boyle. We hope to have the details for 
Our evening issue." So ends the case of Snag. 
And what an everlasting fool ! Well, let 
Him swing ; 'twill help to keep the ropemaker 
In work. Born fools will die as they were born. 
Scene — Mrs. Snag''s door. 

Simon Grub. I give you notice to vacate the place 
Within a month. 

Mrs. Snag. What do you mean ? 

S. G. I mean 

That you must leave before a month is gone, 
Or I shall have to help you out of here. 
Mrs. S. Now who are you to come and mock a worse 
Than widowed woman ? Just as though I'd not 
Enough to bear ; and sure you don't so much 
As own a grain of sand about the place. 

S. G. Not quite so crank. Though not the 
owner quite, 
I am the owner's fist ; and that you'll feel 
When it has struck your jib, as strike it will 
If you are here when I come round again. 

Mrs. S. I don't believe a syllable of what 
You say, you tantalizing knave. Go home 
And pick the bedbugs off yourself, instead 
Of worrying one who has enough to bear. 

S. G. I guess your eyes >vill open when I come 
Again. 

Mrs. S. a gentleman intends to get 
My husband off ; and so we let him have 
The place ; and he has promised me to let 



148 

Me stay. He was so kind, and talked with such 
A heart, I know he wouldn't turn us out 
Of here. He said he wouldn't for a world 
Of lot s like this ; and he's a gentleman. 

S. G. Well no, I guess he wont ; for he has sold 
It out to Ghoul and Company, and I 
Am agent for the firm ; and in their name 
I give you notice that you have to leave. 
Here is the notice written in due form 
Of law. 

Mrs. S. My God! you don't say that. 

S. G. That's just 

Exactly what I say. And what is more, 
I mean it with a vim. Read what you've got 
And say if that don't look like business now. 

Mrs. S. Oh my ! what shall we do ? You 
wouldn't turn 
A woman out of house and home, with four 
Small children clinging to her skii'ts, would you ? 

S. G. Our firm is not responsible for sex ; 
And as- to brats, the market's beared with them. 
And business bored; from which you ydrj infer 
We've no quotations on the article. 

Mrs. S. But is not pity still in human breasts ? 
Has poverty no speech that human ears 
Can hear; misfortune no strong heart-key to 
Unlock your sympathy ; and tears no power 
To melt the icebergs of your arctic soul ? 
Even a dog could understand our woes ; 
And, understanding, it would pity us. 



149 

S. G. In that we do not have dog's ways. We do 
Not deal in slobber but estate. Onr firm 
Has paid a round five-hundred for this lot 
And wants to build on it ; so you must move. 

Mrs. S. Five hundred! and he said it wasn't 
worth 
The cost of making out a deed. 

S. G. Indeed ! 

Mrs. S. But this is all of earth that we have had. 
Where are we to move to ? 

S. G. My gracious ! do 

You think 'twas me that married you ? Am I 
Your husband ? Did you ever find me in 
Your bed ? And must that squad of sticky brats 
Come trooping at my heels and call me Pap^ 
That you would have me tell you where to go ? 
Go where you will ; but go, as I have said. 

Mrs. S. You are a hard, unfeeling man. 

S. G. Add cash 

And then y6uVe got me figured out — hard easily 
With just so much of feeling as can feel 
That it is hard ; but none to run to waste. 
In that, you see, we use economy. 
We wouldn't have enough to cover all ; 
And so we use our feelings sparingly. 

Mrs. S. God pity us when men are worse than 
brutes ! 

S. G. Well, see you're missing when the month 
is up. {Exit.) 



150 

Scene — In Snag'^s cell, 

Norton. And so 'twas me you meant to kill in- 
stead 
Of Lurk. 

Bob Snag. To tell the honest truth, it was. 

N. The honest truth is all the truth there is ; 
For truth is always honest. Tell me now, 
In what had I offended you that you 
Should seek so fearful a -revenge ? 

B. S. Nothing. 

I was a fool that let another lead 
Me round to do what I had never thought 
Of for myself. 'Twas Lurk that put us up 
To it ; and now he has his pay, and ours 
Will come. 

N. And what could Lurk have that should make 
His bosom a volcano, hot with hate 
And ready thus to belch forth 'fatal fire ? 

B. S. Why, nothing in the world but jealousy i 
And that, somehow, is like a devil in 
A man, that never lets him rest, but keeps 
A-raking up hell-fire in him ; hence he. 
While meaning evil, credits others with 
The same ; since what he knows himself to be 
He thinks they are. You know his restless eye. 
Which, like a compass-needle, danced within 
Its socket. Wickedly it twinkled as 
He talked to us of blood — so cool — without 
A muscle twitching in his face to hint 
A possible compunction. I have been, 



151 

Myself a tough case, I confess ; but I 
Could never hide the fact that what I did 
Was ripping like a dull saw at my heart. 
But somehow, Lurk— he seemed to have a spell 
Of deviltry that charmed and chained us to 
His will. I guess it's bloody luck to have 
One's wickedness come back upon him with 
A spring and slap him in the face. 

N. ^^ ^^ 

A universal law that sin, like an 
Infuriate rattlesnake, should bite itself 
And die. But I am sorry you were led 
Astray and brought to this. 

g g And so am I. 

But this is tardy penitence for one 
Whose hands are doubly dyed with blood. Thus much 
However, I may say; I have no more 
Against you than an unborn babe can have 
Against its mother. You have been a friend 
To all of us ; and I would thank you for 
It if it didn't seem to savor of 
Hypocrisy. But that is how i feel. 
As for myself, I guess I'll have to pay 
For blood with blood. All else is gone— all— all. 
I'm but a cipher on the slate of life, 
Waiting the hangman's sponge to wipe me out. 
Even my wife and children are not mine. 
Except as is the memory of a dream- 
Enough to make me think of them and groan. 
I had a home ; but that is gone to pay 



152 

A lawyer, who can do me now no good ; 
And he has sold it. They have notice to 
Vacate the premises within a month. 
I felt that Fortune knocked me down before. 
In that, she grinds me with her heel and seems 
To threaten vengeance after death. Well, it's 
Deserved. That thought lends poison to the sting 
Of death. Were they provided for it would 
Kelieve my pillow of a thousand thorns. 

N. He did a heartless thing. 

B. S. My only right 

Is misery ; and the tithe I get will but 
Be interest on the misery that my deeds 
Have caused to others. So let troubles come. 
They will but be as mountains heaped upon 
A grave that holds a coffined life. But I 
Do wish the living might not have so large 
A share of suffering through my fault. 

N. Well now, 

Be easy on that score. Your family 
Shall be provided with a home. I'll see 
To that myself. 

B. S. Why now, you don't mean that. 

N. Exactly that, to the last letter of 
The final word. 

B. S. It isn't nature to 

Bestow a blessing when a curse is so 
Well earned. 

N. 'Tis the sublimest triumph of 
Our wisdom when we light our actions at 



153 

The throne of God and let them burn with pure 
Divinity. Were He whose eye can pierce 
The soul's sea-depths inexorable in 
The meting us according to our ill 
Desert, mankind were sore distraught. It is 
In mercy that the world finds hopes ; since that 
Wards off the sword of justice from our souls. 
Now, as I hope to share the greater boon 
I give the less. 

B. S. Why, you're a riddle, and 

The more I see the less I understand 
The mystery of the goodness in your heart. 
Which, by its contrast, makes my badness look 
The worse. Oh that I could but tell the boys 
How good you are ! For if they only knew, 
They all would rally round you to a man. 

N. I shall be what I am whatever they 
May be. But should they fail to understand 
Me now; the echo of my message will 
Be heard above my grave,- and heeded then. 

B. S. I hope it may before. Well, you are breath 
To me ; for I can breathe more freely than 
Before. This world is but a shriveled pod. 
From which I soon shall drop — an unripe seed. 
Life's wintry blasts forestall my autumn tide. 

N. Then seize the world before, and so escape 
A second loss, which, since eternal, were 
The greater by infinity. 

B. S. I would 

If one might dare to hope who needs to fear. 



154 

N. It is not daring when the heart is right. 

B. S. But mine is black as night with murder- 
ers blood, 
Which calls for vengeance with an awful voice. 

N. Yet not so loud but Mercy's ear can hear 
The voice of penitence though whis^Dered low. 
Scene — In court. 

The Judge. Prisoners at the bar. It is my painful 
Duty to announce, that in your case the 
Jury has returned a verdict — guilty ; 
Which was the only verdict possible. 
Your guilt is clear and albeit self-confessed. 
Your double crime is most revolting to 
Our sensibilities — the highest in 
The category recognized by law ; 
Which justly makes your crime the pattern for 
Your penalty, by taking from you the 
Equivalent of what you took, so far 
As guilt, in suffering, offsets innocence. 
You well deserve more than a double death 
Eor double murder. Less than what your hands 
Have meted were a stint of justice, save 
As you have one life, and one alone, to 
Oive, Were my feelings such as your offence 
Would gender, I might now exult to speak 
Eor justice and command your taking off; 
Since you have outraged every attribute 
Of true humanity. Two souls, whose hands 
Were busy with life's vulgar drudgeries. 
Without a moment to prepare for that 



155 

Momentous change which comes at best with dread 

And solemn visage to us all, were rushed 

To their account. Prepared or unprepared 

You neither asked nor cared. And that which gives 

Your guilt its blackest hue is this : Your crimes 

Were not committed when the tempests of 

The soul were rolling passion's thunders o'er 

The conscience ; when the judgment shook with 

shocks 
Of sudden phrenzy, and the will was in 
A tremor of suspense and hesitance, 
Yet driven by blind impetuosity. 
No, you deliberated on your deeds ; ^ 

You looked at them ; you measured, planned and 

then 
You executed, with relentlessness , 

So cool it proves that pity has no home 
With you ; which leaves but little room for an 
Appeal to pity in your case. No odds 
That in the case of Lurk your blow glanced from 
Another head to his. We ask the deed and not 
The victim of the deed. You murdered, as 
You meant; but Norton in the form 
Of Lurk. Still, I remember that there is 
This double stain upon your souls, and that 
You are but ill-prepared to meet the Judge 
Who sees your crime with keener eye than mine. 
Your own, however, is the guilt who did 
The deeds, and yours must be the consequence. 
I must maintain the majesty of law 



156 

And vindicate the rights of innocence. 
And now one only task remains to me, 
Which is, to pass upon you severally 
The sentence of the law. You Robert Snag 
And Joseph Black, must hang, each by his neck, 
Till dead ; and may the Lord have mercy on 
Your souls. In view of circumstances that 
Appear to mitigate their guilt, the court 
Will lay a lighter hand on Samuel Drew 
And William Jinks. Its sentence is, that they 
Shall be imprisoned for their natural life ; 
And may their hearts incline to better ways. 



157 



A PSALM DF FAITH, 



PART I. 



No threnodies have I to sing 

And, by their implication, 
Against the Sovereign Ruler bring 

A covert accusation. 

While He has daily led me on 
His blessings have been plenty ; 

Yet oft, alas, I saw not one 
While yet receiving twenty. 

And though the stars were overhead, 
And the round moon had risen. 

My timorous tears I freely shed 
Till they obscured my vision. 

And oft, when pride has longed to scale 

Some lofty elevation. 
He kept me groping in the vale 

Of deep humiliation. 

My lot had thus been otherwise, 

. Had I been first consulted ; 
But what has been I learn to jorize 
From that which has resulted. 



158 

That otherwise had been as wise 

Is very far from certain. 
Enough that His omnicient eyes, 

Which look behind the curtain. 

Behold the meshes of the past 

And present as related 
To that great future which shall last, 

And to all things created. 

In safety I may say thus much : 

The network of creation 
Is one great whole, whose parts, as such, 

Can have no isolation. 

And time is one, whose years as beads 
Upon one string are threaded ; 

And each toward some conclusion leads 
That need not now be dreaded. 

Had I first recognised His hand. 

His unseen wisdom trusted. 
Affairs had then, at His command. 

Been differently adjusted. 

For He fails not the best to give 

In all our circumetances ; 
But best at best is relative, 

As measured by the chances. 

Before I braved the mountain road 
I needed strength and training ; 

Yet blindest ignorance I shewed. 
By constantly complaining. 



159 

At length, while yet I saw it not, 

My pathway was ascending ; 
And e'en the zig-zags in my lot 

Were toward the summit tending. 

Thus while, with introspective eye. 

To self I thought to pander. 
He led me towards a destiny 

Where life is broader, grander. 

As I have will to follow up. 

And as I understand best, 
I still approach the mountain top, 

Where life is broadest, grandest. 

And what for me He seeks to do. 

And what has consummated. 
He has as ce^^inly in view 

For man as aggregated. 

The lesson He is teaching me 

To other minds He teaches ; 
The goodness that I daily see 

To worthier millions reaches. 

Those millions He is leading now, 

As me He has been leading. 
Some brave ones near the mountain's brow, 

And others are proceeding. 

A lifetime it requires for me 

To learn what He is teaching ; 
So must the world its lifetime be, 

Toward its great ideal reaching. 



160 

But fear again our faith debars 

From all that can avail us ; 
And so again we miss the stars 

And make the full-moon fail us. 

For down we look to what is low, 

And see the lowest only, 
And still nK)re pessimistic grow. 

Since goodness looks so lonely. 

But Providence is not asleep, 
Though man maj^ be dyspeptic. 

And let us wail or let us weep 
His ways are antiseptic. 

Admit that earth has too few smiles, 
Too much of sin and sorrow, — 

We must be many moral miles ^ 

From Sodom and Gomorrah. 

And all the intervening space 

Has had a slight ascension ; 
Though clock-like may have been our pace. 

And dull our apprehension. 

Or else, the change that skill has wrought 

No real good possesses ; 
Or else, experience goes for nought. 

Nor art nor knowledge blesses. 

But own we must a growth of mind. 

Improvement in condition ; 
Some evils have been left behind. 

And some are in transition. 



161 

And, clock like, we are moving still. 
With sure and forward motion, 

Impelled by the Eternal Will, 
Whate'er our human notion. 

Admit a void, in which the mind 

Is tentatively groping — 
A chaos, where are millions, blind. 

Half doubting and half hoping. 

A Power is brooding over all ; 

And there is indication 
That what we blindly chaos call 

Is incomplete creation. 

The denser vapors are dispersed, 
Till light with mist is blended ; 

And yet will come the glory-burst 
Of orbs whose sheen is splendid. 

There must be truth and certainty. 
As there are doubt and error. 

There must be love and harmony. 
As there are strife and terror. 

Nay, all the good we have in life 
Demonstrates their existence ; 

And in the very fact of strife 
Is proof of their persistence. 

And partial good already gained 
By them in their vocation, 

Is earnest of the whole obtained 
When comes tlie consummation. 



162 



PART II, 

Whose eye can sweep the breadths of space 

And see — what most deem cryptic — 
Where moves the moral world, can trace 

God's plans in their ecliptic. 
Those plans are moving towards a goal, 

Without a shade of swerving ; 
And humau nature as a whole 

Is some great purpose serving. 

It is a solar orb within 

The universe of being ; 
Though, at its best, the spots of sin 

We cannot fail of seeing. 

The goal defies our telescope. 

The spots our explanation ; 
And yet His nature gives us hope. 

His wisdom expectation. 

And here, that hope to ratify, 

That expectation strengthen. 
The beams that on our pathway lie 

Still broaden as they lengthen. 

And since six thousand years of time 

Begin to elevate us. 
They are a pledge of things sublime 

That certainly await us. 



163 

Six thousand multiplied by six, 

In ages of progression, 
Must bring some grand climacterics, 

And give a great possession. 

Already we the pressure feel 
Of greater power impelling, — 

A quickening impetus to zeal. 
The world's great bosom swelling. 

And when the pillories of the past — 
The heirlooms of oppression, 

In which we hold our brothers fast. 
Impeding their progression ; — 

When these shall all be laid aside. 
And we who now oppress them 

Put off the kid gloves of our pride. 
To stimulate and bless them ; 

When we are ready to obey 

Great Nature's magna charter. . 

Nor longer make the weak our prey. 
As chattleg fit for barter ; — 

The universal Father then 
Will bless us in our blessing ; 

And all will prosper more than when 
One-half was half oppressing. 

A mystery it has been that we 
Have found it hard to ravel ; 

Why every birth of good should be 
With keenest pangs of travail. 



164 

Perchance the cost may make the boon 

Appear a greater treasure, 
And the result more opportune, 

With its excess of pleasure. 

But since 'tis thus that Nature gains 

Her greatest acquisitions, 
We need not shudder at the pains 

Preceding new conditions. 

It must be the Supreme presides 

Above the moral forces. 
And guides them as the stars He guides 

Upon their silent courses. 

And there is pent in moral force 

Repulsion and attraction. 
To help obedience on its course, 

And smite sin with reaction. 

Those forces we perceive in play, 

As with a tidal motion, 
In rolling on some little bay ; 

He views and moves the ocean. 

Here, in the general tide of things. 
The flood is onward flowing ; 

Nor see we all the ships it brings, 
Nor know how far 'tis going. 

But as we see the broken waves 

Recede along the beaches. 
Still others come, as from their graves, 

With mightier upreaches. 



165^ 

And every crispy rolling crest 
That into gem-dust crumbles, 

Is pledge and proof of all the rest, 
As on the sands it tumbles. 

Nor is it much for Him to wait. 
Whose eye sees all the ages, 

Whose finger wrote the book of fate. 
With centuries for its pages. 

Enough for us that He is good, 

So tar as comprehended ; 
And were the rest but understood. 

Our doubts were, doubtless, ended. 



